A Stranger Life
by Northern-Southern Belle
Summary: Sequel to Strange Engagement. Hermione now feels guilty for abandoning Ron, Harry and her principles. She convinces Draco to help her make things right, having Dumbledore cast Priori Chronus. The problem: can love still prevail in the other world? R&R!
1. Guilty

Hermione woke up with a start. Ever since she'd entered the reality that had turned her into a pureblooded Slytherin, as well as Draco's wife, she'd been having the oddest dreams of her rightful Gryffindor past. They concerned her, because she figured that she would have forgotten all that by now. Not that she actually wanted to of course, but strictly for the sake of personal adjustment.

Beside her, Draco stirred. "What's the matter? Did you have another one of those dreams about the other reality again?"

Hermione nodded and hopped out of bed. "It's really strange. You would think that if I were supposed to adjust to this reality, the dreams would stop, and I would be able to. And yet, nothing's changed. At least not in my mind." Suddenly, she turned around and gave Draco a hard gaze.

"Do you ever feel strange about what we did? Like that we shouldn't have done it, and that all this seems really unnatural?"

Draco sighed. "Don't tell me; you're already feeling guilty for abandoning Potter, Weasel and all the rest of your Gryffindor buddies just for a little social and emotional security."

"Yeah, that's about it. And that's not the only reason I stayed. When Pansy came into my room and told me how I'm viewed by our families compared to how she is, I guess I just got drunk with power. That's the real reason I wanted to stay."

Draco laughed. "You wanted to stay for the sole reason of being able to torture Pansy emotionally because you knew you could?"

Hermione nodded and headed to the bathroom to run a cool cloth over her forehead. The dream had still left her a bit shaken. "Yeah, petty and immature, isn't it?"

Frowning, she turned away from the mirror. "But we're really just kidding ourselves with this whole situation. I mean, for one, I'm not sure if I even love you, and could you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me you love me too?"

"Yes," Draco said immediately. He leaned in closer so that they were eye to eye and said "I love you too."

Hermione nodded. "All right. But you only did that to prove you could. You didn't really mean it. And why is it so easy for you now? Before we got here, things were going well enough. We were being civil to one another and there was even the occasional minute when I, as Hermione Granger, muggle-born witch, felt that I could have fallen in love with you as you were. But let's face it. Reaching even civility took a couple of months. It didn't just happen overnight. But now you can tell me you love me without even blinking an eye. It's because I'm more like you, isn't it? I'm exactly the perfect Slytherin girl your parents want you to be with."

Draco nodded. "All right. I admit that there is truth to what you say, but you have to admit, this is the only way this would have worked out. Why else would we have landed here instead of back home if it wasn't?"

Hermione looked at him for a moment, then turned on her heel and stalked out of the bathroom. "So you're telling me," she replied furiously, "that the only way we could be together in this reality or any other is for you to get what you want and do nothing for it, while I give up everything, including my beliefs and every single person I hold dear? My God, you must have a really high opinion of yourself."

Turning on the sink so he could brush his teeth, Draco looked at her angry reflection in the mirror behind him. "When you get dressed, put on something classy. We have to go out to breakfast with my parents again this morning."

Hermione's eyes widened. "You mean they want me to meet more of your relations? My God, how many do you have that I haven't already met yet? Will you tell them I don't feel well? I really don't think I can handle another brunch."

Draco frowned. "No I can't. This one isn't like last time where Father's sister wanted to see you again. These are relatives you haven't met yet. Get dressed. I'll watch you if I have to."

Hermione rolled her eyes and gave in. She went to the closet and pulled out two robes, holding them up so he could see them. "Which one looks better?" she asked tiredly. Draco picked the green one and herded Hermione into the bathroom to help her into it.

Once they were both dressed, they left the house and walked down the street to the little French-type café where they always met Draco's parents for brunch. They were early however, and while they waited, Hermione talked some more.

"Are we ever going to move away from your parents' prying eyes? I mean, we're out of school and married, yet we just live down the street from them! It's like we never left at all! Doesn't that bother you?"

Draco rubbed his temples. "I'll tell you what's starting to bother me. Can't you keep quiet for more then two seconds?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, not until I feel like I've gotten my point across."

"What point?"

"The point that we shouldn't be here, and this whole sick reality is wrong! This is not what I want to do with my life. This is the life for someone like Pansy, who is perfectly content with doing nothing to enhance her life or her brain. Give me vampires and time-travel any day."

Draco sighed. "I admit you were much more pleasant to be around when you were muggle-born, and I do miss doing all the adventurous stuff we did before we got into this life, but what do you propose we do about it?"

"It's easy," Hermione said simply. "I'll go see Professor Dumbledore and get him to cast Priori Chronus spell and we'll go back in time, and it will be like this whole sorry affair never happened.

"Yes, but where are you going to ask he send us? To when we got Stanley in the car accident before he met Ariella?"

Hermione nodded. "Of course. Then I was still a muggle-born. It won't do us any good if we go anywhere else."

Draco nodded. "All right. So we have a plan to make things back into the way they were. After brunch, you write Professor Dumbledore and see if you can get it set up. Now that we have that on the horizon, can you at least pretend like you enjoy brunch? For the sake of my sanity?"

Hermione nodded. "Of course. But the main objective for what we're going to do is not only to get things back the way they were, but to find a way for us to be together that is pleasant and tolerable for both of us. Because I still want to be with you. I just don't want to give up everything to do it."

And as Narcissa and Lucius approached the table, Draco whispered, "Smile. They brought Professor Snape this time, as well as Aunt Bellatrix."

Nothing you recognize is mine!


	2. The New Plan

To distract herself from the four who were approaching the table, Hermione signaled to the nearest waiter and ordered four side orders of bacon, three oranges, a bowl of cereal, a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice, which she began shoving into her mouth with reckless abandon, causing Narcissa to look at her strangely as she sat down.

"Dear, are you all right?" she asked. "You're acting as if you haven't eaten for weeks."

Hermione nodded, mouth full of orange, waving Narcissa's concern away.

"I'm fine," she got out once she swallowed. "I just feel hungrier then normal today, that's all." She paused, looking at the expanse of breakfast food before them. "And try the bacon, it's delicious."

"Heh, yes, I'm sure it is," Draco said patting her gingerly on the back. "Hermione, may I see you under the table?"

"What?" Hermione asked him. But before she could say another word, he had a hold of her wrist and had dragged her under the table for a little chat.

"What is going on with you?" he asked. "I've never seen anyone eat so much so fast, and that doesn't count the toast and strawberries I saw you sneak into your purse."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I'm tense, all right? Everything you see now that is making you unhappy is happening because you didn't tell your parents I was sick like I asked you to."

Draco sighed. "Fine. If you promise to stop being so weird, and act normal, we can stop for ice cream on the way home. What do you say to that?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, but relented. "Fine, as long as I get a double-scoop."

Without another word, they let themselves back up from under the table with blasé expressions on their faces for the rest of the table.

"Sorry about that," Draco said. "There was just something Hermione needed to tell me."

"Pray do tell, Draco. What was it?" Bellatrix asked. "I'm sure that if she can tell it to you it's nothing she can't share with the rest of the table." She looked at her watch. "I have to be back at the Ministry in an hour. Even as Minister, the Dark Lord still insists on punctuality."

Hermione's expression was full of unease while Draco begged her with his eyes to say something. Finally, her expression relaxed and she smiled around the table.

"It was nothing important. Draco just wanted to tell me our plans for the day after we finished breakfast. We didn't want to say anything out loud because what we're going to do is something that's a surprise that involves you."

Draco, who'd been listening to this speech with a feeling of mute dread, looked almost ready to faint by the time she reached the end of it.

"Really," Snape replied, looking faintly interested. "What will we be doing?"

"If we told you that now, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, now would it?" Draco interjected quickly before Hermione could utter a word. The clock on the wall of the café chimed noon and Draco stood up suddenly, taking Hermione's hand so she'd rise with him.

"I just realized Hermione and I really have to go," he said. "The surprise Hermione was talking about is going to take a lot of setting up, and if we don't leave now, we won't be able to get that done on time, and then everything will be ruined."

And before anyone at the table could say another word, he strode away, pulling Hermione behind him.

Once they were a safe distance away from the café, Hermione dug her heels into the sidewalk, forcing Draco to stop.

"What was that I just saw?" she asked. "First you accuse me of acting bizarre and out of the ordinary and berate me for it, then you start acting oddly for a person who's having a meal with his family and favorite professor."

"I just thought we'd need a lot of time to think up that big surprise you promised them," he answered back after awhile.

They walked in silence after that, stopping at a little ice cream stand for Hermione to get her double-scoop just as Draco had promised, then heading back to their house.

Once inside, Hermione flopped on the couch and sighed.

"A flop and sigh," Draco said, looking at her hard. "Is there anything else wrong with you besides the fact that you feel horribly guilty over what you did?"

Hermione looked up at him and sat up, clutching the pillow to her chest. "You heard what your aunt said. He's taking over everything and here we are sitting in our house like nothing's changed." She paused as her face contorted with horror.

"If He's in charge, that means Dumbledore's probably dead. And if he's dead, who are we going to get to do Priori Chronus for us?" she began to rock back and forth and Draco hesitantly put his arms around her.

"It'll be all right, we'll find someone to do it for us." He paused. "And would you feel better about doing this if some people helped us?"

Hermione stopped rocking for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"What I'm trying to say is that this reality hasn't caught either of us in our best lights. I'm mean and controlling and you're a compulsive eater with a guilt problem. Don't you think it'd be better if we had someone to help us with this whole 'going back to the way things were' plan so that we don't end up killing each other before things have the potential to get good?"

Hermione nodded. "I do see what you're saying, but where could we find such people?" she paused for a moment. Then it hit her.

"Draco," she asked, releasing herself from his arms, "do you remember where you put the book with the spells that got us into this reality?"

"Yes," he nodded. "It's under the bed. Why?"

"Because," Hermione said grinning, "I've got the perfect two people to help us with this, but we need the book to get them."

"Who are they?"

She sobered her expression and cleared her throat. "I know you're going to be balky about this, but after all those brunches you dragged me to with your relatives you owe me. I think we should get Gwen and Owen to help us."

Draco's jaw went slack. "You mean, Potter's relative and his girlfriend?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, them. But if it will make it easier for you to deal with, you can think of them as Ariella's friends."

And before he could say a word in protest, she walked to the bedroom, grabbed the book from under the bed and began to leaf through it, looking for the spell that would put them once again in the company of Owen Potter and his girlfriend, Gwendolyn Prewett, and at the same time shouting instructions to Draco about how to handle the surprise she'd unwittingly promised everyone at brunch.


	3. A Change of Spell

Just as Hermione got the right spell down to bring back Owen and Gwendolyn, Draco called her into the living room to survey his party preparation handiwork. She shouted for him to give her a second, then marked the page in the book, putting it back under the bed and went to see what he'd done.

Although she shouldn't have been, she was a bit taken aback when she saw that the front parlor was covered from archway to archway in silver and green. There were snakes in her plants and the food was arranged on green dishes. When she got her bearings, she found Draco looking at her with an eager expression on his face, waiting for her approval.

"So, what do you think of all this?" he asked. "Did I do a good job or what?"

She looked around once more and said hesitantly "It looks great…for a Slytherin party."

Draco smiled, pointedly ignoring her hesitation. "Of course it does, since that is the kind of party we are having. All of us weren't in any other houses, were we? At least not in this reality anyway. And thank you so much for approving." He paused and then walked over to a pot of ivy that had nestled itself behind the sofa and eyed the fireplace. "Are you sure it isn't too much?" he asked after he'd considered a moment. "I was thinking that we'd start with appetizers in here and then go out in the back garden for drinks, and after that-"

He kept talking but Hermione was no longer listening. Her brain had switched to a more urgent matter; the matter of how to get Gwen and Owen here and when they would do it. It would probably be best if she and Draco went back and got them, then brought them back here and explained everything. Of course it would take them awhile to believe the whole thing, but the one good thing about this reality was that even though things were bad, she and Draco were on the right side of them. The connections which were in most cases unfortunate would serve her well until she could get her bearings together and save the world. Suddenly a tap on her shoulder broke into her thoughts.

"…So those are the party plans. What do you think? Do you have anything you want to add?"

Hermione turned around and faced Draco again. "No I don't. I think you're doing wonderful, and besides, they're your guests not mine." She held up a hand as he opened his mouth, undoubtedly to say that even though that was true, the idea for this soiree had been hers in the first place. "And have you thought in the least what you're going to tell them when they ask why we're having this party? Because you know they're going to, in fact, if I recall correctly, Professor Snape already did."

Draco shook his head and smiled. "No I haven't thought of that. I've been getting things ready. Do you really think it's fair for me to do all this work since it was your mouth that got us into this party in the first place? What have you been doing while I've been getting things ready?"

Hermione put her hands on her hips and frowned. "I've been in the bedroom looking in that book for solutions to get us out of this hell!"

That wiped the smile right off his face. "I'm sorry, I know you were." She was surprised to hear that his voice sounded sincere. "Have you found anything?"

Hermione nodded and led him into the bedroom where she pulled the book out from under the bed and showed him the page she'd marked.

"That doesn't seem like the one we used last time," he observed as he looked at it.

"It isn't," she answered. "I figured we'd stay away from that one. I mean, it got us _here _the last time we used it. Do you even want to think what would happen if we tried to use it again? And that's not the only time travel spell in the world, right? There are other ones that are more specific and work just as nicely."

"So what's the plan?" Draco asked as he gently removed the book from her lap to see for himself what she'd found.

"Well, I figure we have at least two options for how we want to handle this," Hermione said as she got up from the floor and began to root around in Draco's sock drawer for a chocolate frog, one of the stash she kept hidden around different parts of the house to help her think. She found one at the bottom of the drawer and pulled the wrapper off, getting a good grip on it before it could hop away then shoving it in her mouth.

"We could either go to them or bring them here to us," she continued after she'd swallowed. "I wanted to find out from you whether or not you had a preference. Do you want to go to them, or do you want them to come to us?"

"I think we should go to them," Draco answered immediately. "Couldn't you stand to have some time away from here?"

Hermione nodded and handed him a chocolate frog. He smiled at her in thanks and unwrapped it. After he'd swallowed, he said, "when we go back, what do you think we're going to see? I mean, we aren't going to be recognized as Valerian and Ariella because this is a different spell. What if we can't interact with Owen and Gwendolyn to bring them back?"

Hermione took a breath. "Why wouldn't we be able to interact with them?" she asked. "I realize that this time it will be a lot more complicated then the other spell, but we can pull it off. We just have to find Valerian and Ariella ahead of time and get them to trust us so nothing gets thrown off and no one gets confused."

Draco frowned. "Yes, I understand that now, but what are we going to say when we do find them? 'Excuse us, we're from the future. Please come home with us so we can save the world'?"

Hermione frowned and shook her head. "Of course not. That would be the last thing we'd want to say. Besides, you don't need to worry so much. Neither Valerian nor anyone from his crowd needs to come back with us. You need to get him to get Ariella to trust me. If you do that, she will tell Owen and Gwen that I'm a good person and it's safe for them to leave with me. Then we can get them back here and continue with the job at hand. Do you understand that?"

Draco shook his head, confused. "Not really at this point, but I guess I have no choice about that. I promise I will understand eventually. But what if we land at a point in time that's, I don't know, problematic?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if we end up at a point in time where Ariella and Valerian hate each other and she's not speaking to him, like right after he kidnapped her? Then she won't listen to anything he says and then we won't get who we need!"

Hermione looked at him resolutely. "This is a pretty specific spell we're going to be dealing with. We can pick a time when things were at least civil and work from there. But even then, there have to be some risks we're willing to take. We'll leave tomorrow, after we've had time to recuperate from the party."

Draco nodded and the two of them stood up. Just then, the doorbell rang. "Sounds like they're here," Draco said, then waved Hermione out the bedroom door. He followed after her and snuck a kiss. By the time they reached the parlor, they were composed and calm, ready to take on the party from hell and determined to make the best of it.


	4. The Announcement

The first people to enter the house were Narcissa and Lucius. Narcissa was holding a box, and when Hermione asked her what was in it, she just smiled mysteriously. "It's a surprise," she whispered. "It's something to help with the announcement Lucius and I think you and Draco are going to make."

Hermione nodded, but inside, she was asking herself "and what is that? I don't have any idea."

Draco for his part said nothing about the box his mother held, but the greeting was equally warm on both sides. "Your father should be along any minute," Narcissa informed him. "He forgot something back at the manor and sent me ahead."

He nodded and went to the kitchen to get the appetizers, placing them in the center of the large kitchen table. "If you're hungry, Mother, we have some little things if you want them."

Narcissa got up and went to look at what he'd laid out. She got a few things and then went back to the couch, where she gazed at Hermione. "Tell me what the big surprise is, please. I promise I won't tell anyone."

Uncertain of what to do, Hermione looked at Draco for help. He smiled and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mother, but you'll have to wait just like everyone else. But it will be worth it, I promise you." He paused, then looked up at Hermione.

"Darling, may I see you in the bedroom?" he asked. Hermione gave him a confused look that Narcissa couldn't see, then followed him out of the parlor.

"Don't worry you two," Narcissa called after them. "If anyone else comes, I'll let them in."

When they were both seated on the bed with the door closed and locked, Draco gave Hermione a look. "I have a plan for what we'll tell people when they ask why we're throwing this party," he announced.

"That's good," Hermione said, feeling immensely relieved. Then she paused and eyed him suspiciously. "What is it? Does it have anything to do with me?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "For once, can you trust me? Everything will work out perfectly, and you have absolutely nothing to worry about, all right?"

Hermione looked at him for a few more moments to see if his eyes would show a lie, but his expression never changed. She finally decided to trust him because his idea was all they had.

By the time they returned to the parlor, it was full of people, including Bellatrix and Snape. Narcissa and Bellatrix were discussing the decorating scheme, and when Narcissa saw Hermione, she began to extol the virtues of the parlor's appearance.

"Actually, the decorations were Draco's doing, not mine. I had to go out for awhile and he told me he had things under control. I have to admit, he did do a fabulous job."

Meanwhile, Bellatrix was trying to needle the secret news out of Draco. "Bella, don't bother." Narcissa advised. "They didn't tell me, so I'm pretty sure they won't tell you either."

Just then, Hermione came up to Draco and tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm not feeling well," she informed him. "I think I must have eaten something bad at breakfast. I think I'll go lie down. Do you think you can handle everyone while I have a little rest?"

Draco nodded. "You do whatever you need to. I'll take care of things here."

As soon as Hermione was gone, Narcissa gave Draco a worried look. "What's the matter with her?" she asked.

"She isn't feeling well," Draco said. "But once she rests a little bit, I think she'll be fine."

Narcissa nodded, but once Draco had looked away, she leaned back into the couch, her face looking troubled. "Do you think I should go in and look after her?" she asked finally.

"No, Mother. I think it would be best just to leave her alone. It's nothing serious. Just a little upset stomach."

"I wouldn't be surprised after all she ate today," Bellatrix said. "It looks to me like she's put on a bit of weight."

"You'd be the only one who thinks that, Bellatrix," Snape said dryly. "I myself believe she seems remarkably well, what with all the things she's been going through lately." He looked at Draco for a moment. "Are the two of you planning to go away on holiday soon? I think it would be a good idea."

Draco nodded. "I don't disagree. I'll ask Hermione and see what she thinks." He quickly excused himself and went to join Hermione, who was lying in the bed and wearing an expression of suffering. "Are you ill?" he asked, "or did you just need a reason for a break?"

"The latter," Hermione answered truthfully. "Your aunt keeps giving me these awful looks and I have no idea why."

"It's because she thinks you're letting yourself go," he answered plainly. "She mentioned especially that she thinks you've put on a significant amount of weight."

Hermione sat up and groaned. "I have not! I like to eat, that's all. And who does she think she is, criticizing me like that?"

She jumped out of bed and went stalking back into the parlor with Draco following close behind.

"What is your problem?" she demanded as soon as she reached Bellatrix. "I am not fat, and even if I was, I don't see how it's any of your business!" And for some inexplicable reason, the next thing she did was burst into tears.

"It's all right," Narcissa said in a calming voice, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder, while at the same time shooting death glares at her sister. "Severus was just commenting that he thinks you look lovely, as the rest of us all do."

"Really?" Hermione sniffed, taking a deep breath and looking to Snape for confirmation. He nodded without missing his cue. At that point, Draco walked over to stand behind her and cleared his throat, making the whole room silent.

"I know you all are wondering why you were invited here today," he said. "The truth is that Hermione and I have something to share with you. It explains why Aunt Bella thinks Hermione's gained weight, why she ate so much at breakfast, and why she has an upset stomach. The fact is, Hermione and I are expecting a baby."

Silence followed the announcement. Then, everyone gasped as Hermione's eyes fluttered and she began to fall towards the floor.


	5. Little Lie, Big Problem

Narcissa's eyes widened as she watched Hermione. "Quick," she yelled at Snape, "somebody catch her so she doesn't hurt herself!"

It took a moment, but finally, he registered what she was saying and Snape threw himself forward and caught Hermione just before she hit the floor. She hung limp in his arms for a few moments, her eyes closed. Then, just as Snape set her on the couch, her eyes slowly began to flutter, and everyone clustered around the couch with bated breath.

When she was fully awake, Narcissa motioned for Draco to put his arm around her and help her sit up. She looked around the room with bleary eyes, and had to open and close her mouth three or four times before she could get any words out.

"Did Draco just tell you about us having a baby?" she asked.

Narcissa nodded, grinning widely, and patted her lightly on the leg. Lucius managed as pleasant an expression as he could and moved closer to his wife.

"He did!" Narcissa's tone was one of delight. "And we couldn't be more thrilled for the two of you. We weren't expecting this announcement so soon!"

Looking at Narcissa's expression, Hermione finally managed a watery smile. "Yes, well I was very surprised when I found out. In fact, I'm still a little shaken by the idea. But in a good way."

Draco nodded in agreement. "I agree entirely. We weren't planning on starting our family this early, but one thing led to another, and well, here we are."

After that, everyone toasted to the future of Draco and Hermione's offspring and then they separated, with Draco, Lucius and Snape going into the library and Narcissa, Hermione and Bellatrix staying in the parlor to talk more about the baby.

"I know this is a silly question to be asking since it seems like you only found out you were expecting a little while ago, but have you thought up any names for your children?" Narcissa began.

"No, not really," Hermione replied. "As Draco said, we weren't really planning on starting a family so early. We just wanted to have time to enjoy each other awhile before we had kids."

"It was probably enjoying each other that got you into this position in the first place," Bellatrix said, grinning wickedly.

Narcissa ignored her sister's comment and gave Hermione a reassuring smile. "You don't have to worry about a thing dear. Lucius and I will take good care of you until the second the baby arrives. And besides, just before Draco told us the news, he and Severus were discussing the two of you going on a holiday to help relieve the stress you've been under since you got married. This is the perfect solution."

"That's very generous of you, but I couldn't impose on you like that," Hermione protested. "Besides, Draco and I have something that we really need to take care of and it needs to be done by both of us and done immediately."

Narcissa just waved the comment aside. "Whatever you and Draco have planned, he is perfectly capable of handling on his own. I'll go home and get one of the elves to come and get your things. I won't take no for an answer."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue once more, but realized it was pointless. Narcissa was dead-set on being doting, and nothing would change her mind. She just hoped that Draco truly appreciated what she'd be going through for him in the next months.

* * *

Eventually, the guests decided on one last toast, and then in turn they each said their goodbyes. When Draco shut the door on the Narcissa, who was last and almost reluctant to leave, Hermione called Draco into the bedroom. He went, and when he asked her what she wanted, she promptly whacked him hard over the head with the spellbook. 

"Ow!" he cried. "What the hell was that for? I got us through the party, didn't I? What did I do wrong?"

"You told them I was pregnant without telling me first," she replied, her voice shaking with fury. "Now our entire plan is ruined and it's all your fault! We're never going to get out of here!" Growling in frustration and throwing him a look that would kill even the bravest man, Hermione threw herself onto the bed, and began hitting the mattress repeatedly with the heavy book. Draco backed away, and watched her, wincing as he imagined that the mattress was his head.

"Why is our plan ruined?" he asked finally, bracing himself against the door, and holding a pillow he'd brought her from the living room in front of his midsection like a shield.

"Aren't you the least bit curious about why your mother was so reluctant to leave?" Hermione asked. She was much calmer now, but he was still afraid to come near her.

Draco paused a moment, then he nodded. "I did find that a bit strange, yeah."

"It's because she wants to watch me every second until I have this fictitious baby you made up. She wants me to move into the Manor, where she can watch me and take care of me every second. Now do you see why I'm so mad about this? If your mother is watching me like a hawk twenty-four hours a day, I can't very well go into the past with you to get Owen and Gwen, can I? And won't she be suspicious when the months go by and I don't look or act pregnant at all?"

"Well," Draco said smiling slyly, feeling bolder by the fact that she was no longer screaming swear words at the top of her lungs and hitting things with hard, heavy objects, "I can think of a way to fix the latter problem, if you feel so inclined." He looked at the bed suggestively. Hermione looked too for a minute, then she looked at him incredulously.

"Don't start," she said with finality. Then she stood up and shoved the book at him. "Your mother is sending an elf over to pack my things soon. As you will have to do this entire job on your own, know the spells well, and know what you are going to do to accomplish this. I don't care what you do, as long as Gwen and Owen get here."

"Stop," Draco said suddenly. "You don't have to do this. I'll tell my mother you aren't really going to have a baby."

Hermione turned around from where she'd been standing facing the window across from their bed. "You can't do that now. Your mother would be shattered."

"Well, you said it yourself," Draco replied reasonably. "You aren't really pregnant right now, and in a few months, that will become apparent, and Mother will know we lied to her. Then she'll be worse then shattered, and we'll have to bear it. So, may I again suggest that we take care of that worry and hope for the best?"

Hermione looked at him, surprised. "You really are unbelievable, you know that, right?" She then watched as he stripped off his clothes, and then went to her closet to undress herself, and when the house-elf came to get her things, which she'd put outside the bedroom door beforehand, she was blissfully unaware of it, and everything else.


	6. Test Results

When she was finally able to open her eyes again, it took Hermione awhile to remember that it was the day she was moving to the Manor. But when she realized it, she was less then enthused about getting out of bed. Instead, she just looked at the clock for a moment, and then turned away from it and burrowed under her covers. This roused Draco, who sat up and removed the covers from her body.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

Hermione didn't bother to look at him, but instead kept her face in her pillow, and her "I have to move in with your parents today" was incredibly muffled. Even so, Draco understood it.

"Oh, yeah. Look, I'm really sorry about that whole thing, but it's one less thing for you to have to worry about, right?" he asked hopefully.

Hermione did turn her face toward him then. She looked at him for a moment, then she slowly sat up. "You would think that, but in fact, it's the exact opposite."

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Because I'm still concerned about whether you will be able to behave yourself around Gwen and Owen if I'm not there. This other reality hasn't erased the Black Cat scene. I am just afraid that you'll let your pride get the best of you and then you'll find some way to alienate them."

Draco's expression was wounded. "I would not! I can't believe you'd even think of such a thing. Did I, or did I not work well with Potter and Weasel while we were trying to get out of the whole vampire sacrificing mess?"

Hermione sighed and got out of bed to put on her dressing gown. "You did, I admit that, but you also just demonstrated something I worry about. Gwen and Owen have names, and I think they'll be a bit put off if you start nicknaming them the way you do Ron and Harry."

"All right, so I'll stop doing that," Draco replied easily, hopping out of bed, and throwing a green robe over himself.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Hermione went into the bathroom and gazed at herself in the full-length mirror. "Do you think I'm pregnant?" she asked.

Draco stood behind her and put his arms around her grinning devilishly. "After all the work we did last night, you'd better be."

Hermione grinned and rolled her eyes, mock-punching him in the arm. Then she looked at the clock again. "I'd better get ready now," she said when she saw the time. "Your mother will probably be along any minute."

Draco nodded and let her go. He brushed his teeth as she showered, and then they switched places. Finally, they were both ready, and out in the living room, waiting for Narcissa.

Not long afterwards, she arrived, smiling broadly and clutching three shopping bags. "I was out and about today, and I thought I'd pick you up some things," she explained as she gave Draco the bags.

Hermione stared at them with wide eyes. "You didn't need to go to all the trouble," she began, but Narcissa quickly silenced her.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked. Hermione gave Draco one last look and the two of them said goodbye. Then she followed Narcissa out of the house and the two of them walked the short distance to the Manor.

* * *

Narcissa knocked on the front door and a house-elf came and answered it promptly, letting the two of them in with deep bows. "Lucius!" Narcissa called as soon as the elf had taken Hermione's things as well as her own, "Lucius, I'm back with Hermione!" 

Lucius then appeared quite suddenly, and welcomed the two of them home. "Narcissa, do you think you should show her the room we've given her?" he asked.

Narcissa nodded and motioned for Hermione to follow her once again. She led her in and out of various corridors until she finally reached the room she'd been looking for. She opened it and said with a flourish, "and Hermione dear, this will be your room!"

Hermione looked around. It was an impressive room, that was for certain. And a very calming room, as everything in it was done up in shades of blue or green. Hermione had a disconcerting feeling for a moment of being under water.

"And you have a full-length mirror in your bathroom just in here," Narcissa continued, breaking Hermione away from her thoughts. She took her eyes off the ceiling for a moment to look where Narcissa was indicating.

Like the bedroom, the bathroom was large and impressive, the bathtub large enough to hold an entire family and the faucets and other fixtures all done up in gold.

"Any questions?" Narcissa asked as soon as Hermione had had a chance to look for awhile.

Hermione thought a moment. "Is it just me, or is my room really far away from everywhere else in the house?" she asked.

"It's not really," Narcissa said immediately. "Lucius and I are just next door, and the house-elves will bring you whatever you want, so it's not like you'll ever need to go out or anything like that."

Hermione put her head down, took a deep breath and counted silently to ten. It would be a cold day in hell before she truly liked this arrangement. How was she supposed to stay sane if she wasn't even allowed to get out of the house every once in awhile?

* * *

And yet, she managed, and before she knew it, she'd been there a little over three months. They had been strange months too. She felt very strange every day, and she'd asked the house-elves to bring her the strangest things, especially for breakfast. The sort of things she wouldn't even consider eating. 

After one of these breakfasts, it hit her quite suddenly. As soon as Narcissa had left the house for the day and the house-elf had cleared away her breakfast dishes, Hermione told him that she was leaving for a little while, and that under no circumstances was he to tell Miss Narcissa where she'd gone. She felt really bad ordering the house-elves around, but this was a desperate circumstance.

She went to the store and picked up a few ingredients and then came straight back, not wanting to be gone longer then she absolutely had to. She then nicked a small cauldron from the kitchen and filled it with water from her bathroom. Then she read the instructions for the pregnancy test spell from the spellbook, muttering to herself, "I want it to be pink, I want it to be pink, I want it to be pink." She put the ingredients in the cauldron and watched with bated breath as the potion turned. After ten minutes, it finished, and she was relieved and shocked by the results: the potion was pink, and she was pregnant!


	7. The Tough Decision

A/n- Sorry for the wait, and thank you so much for sticking with me, but I was suffering from a major block. Here's the next chapter!

Hermione stared at the potion for a few minutes longer, taking deep breaths in and out so she wouldn't faint. Her first thought was to send Draco an owl and tell him the good news, but then she realized that he was probably off in some other time with Gwen and Owen trying to get the mess they were in sorted out, and the distraction of knowing he was soon going to be a father wouldn't really help the situation.

Suddenly, she tensed as she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Looking at the cauldron of potion for a moment, she quickly pushed it into the closet, ignoring when streams of pink sloshed all over the floor of the closet. Just as she got the closet door closed, Narcissa came in her room looking very contented.

"I've just had the most wonderful day," she confided.

"Oh, really?" Hermione asked. "What did you do?"

Narcissa grinned and rolled her eyes. "Bella and I went shopping of course! I can't expect you to do it all by yourself, now can I? Especially since Draco isn't here."

At that point, her eyes suddenly lit up and she pulled some folded parchment from the pocket of her robe. "Speaking of Draco, this came by way of his owl earlier today. I was going to give it to you earlier, but it slipped my mind. And don't worry, I didn't read it."

Hermione nodded and gave Narcissa a small smile. Even though she'd been here for months, Hermione still found it strange that Narcissa was being so nice to her, and it even scared her a little at times.

After Hermione assured her that she was quite comfortable and had need of nothing, for that was what Narcissa had come to check on, Narcissa left with one last good morning, and Hermione was once again alone.

She now opened the letter Narcissa had brought her with a frown on her face, not eager to find out what the letter would tell her. If Draco could still send her letters, it was doubtful that he'd actually gone and done what she'd asked him to do.

She read the letter slowly. It was surprisingly sweet, although her suspicions were confirmed.

_Hermione,_

_I realize that you will most likely be displeased to get this letter from me, seeing as you've been gone so long and you requested that I make contact with Gwen and Owen months ago. However, I didn't want to go gallivanting off to some other time until I knew for sure whether or not we'd be expecting any time soon. So are we, or are we not? If you write me back and tell me that we are, I will come and see you, and then I _swear _to you that I will make contact with Gwen and Owen._

_Thank you so much for putting up with my mother, it means a lot to her. Hoping to see you soon._

_Love, _

_Draco_

Hermione grinned as she folded up the letter and stuck in the drawer of her desk, especially grateful now that Narcissa hadn't read any of it. Hermione would have had quite a few things to answer for if it had been read.

Although Hermione was slightly upset that Draco hadn't started on his mission, she could also see why he hadn't and she was grateful for it. It was nice to know that he had planned to be around until he knew where they were headed for certain. After all, this whole mess had been his fault in the first place.

Shaking her head, she got out a quill and some parchment and wrote out a response.

_Draco,_

_The test was positive. We're going to be parents! Your mother and Aunt Bellatrix are shopping a lot now, although they haven't shown me any of their purchases. Things are getting to be more tolerable around here then they were in the beginning, but maybe that's because I'm getting used to it, perish the thought. I admit I was a little disappointed when your mother first gave me your letter, but then I realized that what you did was probably the right thing, so I'm not mad at you._

_And I just realized, how are we going to handle all this later, you know, when we're back to how things were when we hated each other and all that? Do you think the fact that we have a baby will change anything? I at least hope we remember this reality a little bit, so we at least remember how we got around to having a baby._

_. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Can't wait to see you._

_Love, _

_Hermione_

After she finished the letter, she called for a house-elf to take it away and have it sent, hoping that it would get to Draco quickly.

* * *

Ever since he had sent the letter out, Draco had taken to standing by the open kitchen window of his and Hermione's empty house, waiting for his owl to return with her reply. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was as anxious as she was about the idea of the two of them being parents, and wished more then anything that that hadn't been the first excuse he'd come up with as to the reason for the surprise party.

He tensed suddenly as he thought he saw an owl on the horizon heading toward the house. He watched with his hands tightly gripping the sill of the window as the owl glided closer and closer to him. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as soon as the owl flew in the window and landed gracefully on one of the kitchen chairs, holding out its leg that held the long-awaited letter.

He took it with shaking hands, eager to read what it said. He read it slowly, line by line, and could feel himself actually start to lighten. He felt as if a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Grinning, he threw the letter into the air and ran to get his coat. He put it on quickly and practically flew out the door. Then, as soon as he was down the front steps, the realization of Hemione's new fears hit him like a wave of ice water. He stopped and sat down on the bottom step, thinking about the place he naturally called home, and how different it was from here. So different that this baby they were going to bring into the world wouldn't be able to have a normal life if they did go back, and that was all there was to it, he knew.

Draco stood up and walked down the street and into his parents' house. His mother looked at him in surprise as he entered without even a hello and went straight to Hermione's room.

As she looked at him with surprise, he said, "your letter got me thinking, and I realized that if we go back, this baby that we're going to have is never going to have a decent life. If we stay here and have it, we'll be in love, but He'll have taken over the world, but if we go, we'll hate each other so much that it just won't work for us to have a baby too. I think that before we go any farther with this, we need to decide where we're going to do with ourselves for certain, if not for our own sakes, then for the baby's."


	8. Going Forward

Hermione didn't say anything. She turned away from him and buried her head in her pillow.

Draco, puzzled by her strange behavior, moved from where he'd been standing to sit by her on the bed, immediately wiping the stern expression from his face.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You're the one who wanted to go back, and now I want to make that possible for you."

As he put his arms around her to offer comfort, she finally turned to face him and he was surprised to see that her eyes were wet.

"Don't you understand?" she said, her voice shaky, "If we go, then I won't ever be pregnant, and we won't have a baby anyway, so whatever we do then won't really matter."

Draco paused for a moment. He hadn't really thought about that, but now that Hermione had actually come out and said it, he realized she was right.

"Wait," he said. "I have an idea."

Hermione looked up, stunned as he let her go and bounded out of the room with an enthusiasm that was very uncharacteristic of him. Not wanting to be left out of finding something interesting, she hopped off the bed and ran after him.

"What's going on?" she asked him as soon as she'd managed to catch up. "What are you planning on doing? It won't get us killed will it?" she asked, suddenly suspicious.

Draco looked up at her, surprised. "No, of course not. And I'm really hurt that you don't trust me more by now."

"Oh, yes of course," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Because every idea you come up with is just wonderful."

Draco didn't even look up from the heavy book he held in his lap. "Will you stop harping about that already? I made a mistake and I'm trying to fix it, all right?"

"All right, I'm sorry," Hermione replied somewhat sheepishly. She then pulled up a chair next to him to see what he was looking at.

"This isn't anything special, just another book of time travel spells," he assured her when he saw her looking at it. "I was thinking that we might take a little trip into the future before we go into the past."

Hermione frowned. "Why? Why do any time-traveling at all? We're going to mess up something no matter which way we go."

Draco made no indication that he'd heard her and continued to turn the pages of the book until he finally let out a yell of triumph that made Hermione jump.

"What is it?" she asked.

Draco looked up at her and smiled. "I found a spell that will let us travel to the future," he replied. "With the way this one works, we might end up some place very interesting."

Hermione snatched the book away from him and looked at the page he had bookmarked. "This looks to be a very strange spell, but why would we want to go into the future anyway? If we want to change the current world situation, we have to go into the past."

Draco shook his head. "This has absolutely nothing to do with us changing the current world situation. This is to tell us whether or not we'll still have a baby after we go back and save the world."

Hermione shut the book quickly, being careful to keep her finger on the page. "Are you serious? This spell will help us find that out?"

Draco nodded. "It will. Now try looking at what it does."

Hermione looked down at the spell. Under the title it read: _All future questions answered no matter what they are._

"But what are we going to _do_ with it?" she asked him curiously.

And he responded quite simply, "We are going to meet our baby, at a later date of course. After they've had time to grow up a bit."

"You seem so certain we're going to have one to meet," she observed.

Draco smiled. "Well, something inside me just keeps telling me we will. Now, get the book and we'll start the sp-"

At that moment, there was a frantic pounding on the door, and when Draco went to answer it, an incredibly flustered and panicked Narcissa entered the room. When she saw Hermione, she took a deep breath and gave the pair a smile.

"There you are, Hermione. I was coming to your room to show you some of the things that Bella and I bought today, and when you weren't there, I was so worried."

Draco's eyebrows rose. "Mother, are you telling me that you haven't let Hermione leave her room for three whole months?"

"Well, I just didn't see why she needed to," Narcissa replied without a hint of shame. "She's so well-taken care of here that I don't see why she'd need to go anywhere else."

"How about for the sake of her sanity?" Draco replied. "I love this house too, but even I can only stay here for so long before it starts to get to me."

Narcissa looked like she wanted to say something else, but Hermione interrupted, stalling the argument.

"I'm sorry, Narcissa. But now that Draco is here, do you think it would be all right for me to move around just a little bit while I still can?"

At that, Draco let out a small snort, and Narcissa gave her a little smile. "All right. I guess since Draco is here, it would not cause any harm to let you go places. Just don't do anything too dangerous, all right?"

Hermione and Draco looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Narcissa with straight faces.

"Of course we won't do anything dangerous Mother. We aren't completely mad. We were just planning a little trip before you came in here. A final jaunt for just the two of us before we become parents and don't have any time to spend alone anymore," Draco said calmly.

"Really?" Narcissa asked, her eyes lighting up. "Where are you going?"

Hermione and Draco looked at one another uneasily for a moment, unsure of what to tell her. Then, Hermione spoke up.

"We actually decided to do a little sightseeing in Paris," she said. "We would ask you along, but I'm afraid we just got tickets for the two of us."

Narcissa shook her head. "That's all right. I wouldn't want to intrude on your last precious bits of alone time. Now, I better be going. Lucius and I are going out to dinner tonight."

And with that, Hermione and Draco waved Narcissa out the door, and as soon as she was gone, the two of them breathed sighs of relief.

"Thank God," Draco said. "I thought she was never going to leave."

"Yes," Hermione agreed. "What do you think we would have had to do if she had wanted to come with us on our little 'vacation'?"

"That's not really something I want to think about, ever," Draco replied, heading back to where the open book lay. "Now, as I was saying before my mother showed up, if you'll hand me the book, we can start the spell. But remember, we have to keep in mind what we want out of it, otherwise it doesn't work, so remember that we want to see an older version of our baby."

"Are you sure you don't want me to recite it?" Hermione asked. "If I remember the last time I let you handle a spell on your own, it was one in a serious of horrible missteps that ended with Stanley getting killed."

"I wouldn't say that it was that bad," Draco replied, sounding wounded. "After all, it did get us here, for what that's worth."

"Okay, I suppose you're right, this isn't so terrible, but still." She looked at him imploringly.

"All right, fine. You can say the incantation if it makes you feel better, even though I was the one who did all the work finding it," he cried, almost heaving the book at her.

She caught it and shook her head. "And I'm grateful to you for finding it, but there is no excuse to be cranky. You are too grown-up for that."

Draco continued to pout, but Hermione pretended not to notice. She found the spell and gazed at it for a few moments. Then she felt Draco's eyes boring into her back, and she turned to meet his reproachful gaze.

"Okay, if you want to read the spell so bad, I will let you, but remember this: If we land somewhere completely strange and get stuck there, I will blame you entirely. Is that a burden you are willing to shoulder?"

Draco nodded eagerly and Hermione gave him the book. Almost immediately, he began to recite the spell:

"Where present is uncertain, to future it flies, the answers you seek, the ties that bind. All that is to be will be yours, all that is, behind closed doors."

At that moment, the room began to shift. The floor began to drop from underneath them and morph from tile to stone. The room became more cavernous then homey, and darker. All the light seemed to have been sucked out of the room.

Then, quite suddenly, the floor stopped dropping and Hermione and Draco found themselves standing in front of a dark-colored door in a hallway that seemed to be glowing green.

* * *

They had no idea where they were, but Hermione took a torch from the wall and shined the flame on the doorplate. It said, in thick letters, that the room belonged to a Charlotte Gray, and underneath Charlotte's name, another one: Elina Malfoy.

"Does this mean what I think it does?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Draco nodded. "Even when we go back, we're going to have a baby."

And then they waited with baited breath as the door opened.


	9. Elina

Two girls stepped out of the room laughing about something innocuous. Then, the shorter one who had pale blue eyes and red hair caught a glimpse of Hermione and Draco, motioning for her companion to keep silent.

The other girl hushed immediately, and for a moment, the four of them just stood there, staring at one another. Then, the redhead spoke.

"Elina," she said, addressing her friend, "what do you say we take these two outside? It's a bit stuffy in here."

The other girl nodded. "We should at least ask them who they are before we take them to the Headmaster." Her voice was light, but there was a hint of steel in it. She didn't sound like a sort to be messed around with.

Elina and the redhead led Draco and Hermione through narrow, winding halls and out into the sunshine. Hermione was surprised that there was any at all, seeing as how it was so dark in the castle.

They found a tree far removed from everything else and sat underneath it, Hermione and Draco finally getting a good glance at the girl's faces. The red-head's face was delicate and lightly freckled. Her nose was small and she had an air of unpredictability about her. But it was the other girl who really mattered.

Elina Malfoy was tall and slender, with Draco's complexion and features and long hair like black silk cascading down her back. She eyed Hermione and Draco with curiosity, not the hostility they originally expected.

"Where did you two come from?" she asked finally. "I don't think I've ever seen the two of you around here before? Or have I?"

Hermione shook her head. "This is our first time here. Usually we're at Hogwarts. Unless, this is Hogwarts?"

Elina shook her head. "I would have gone there, but my parents decided against it. They thought that this would be a better environment for me. There's no house structure here, like at Hogwarts. People just get notice of where they're going to live and that's where they go. Thus, there's no house rivalries, no scorn, nothing like that. That isn't to say that people get along all the time, but there's no preconceived notions of anything. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Hermione nodded, pleased. "That was a good idea your parents had. Do you see them often?"

Elina smiled. "Yes, actually. They came to visit for a few weeks after I sent an owl telling them that I had gotten tops on my exams and Professor Hoxley named me the top student of our year."

She looked extremely pleased with herself. Meanwhile, the redhead was looking at Draco and Hermione with a curious expression, as she had been the entire time Elina had been talking. Now, Elina finally noticed it.

"Rosie, what in the world is going on? Why do you keep looking at them like that?"

Rosie quickly averted her gaze back to Elina. "I know why they seem so familiar. They're your parents, but younger!"

Elina looked at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. "I knew that, Rosie. Even a lawn gnome with a brain injury couldn't mistake the resemblance."

Hermione blinked. "You do?" she asked, surprised. "You know who we are?"

Elina nodded. "You look basically the same now, except for being older and all that entails. Are you here to see whether or not you'll have me after you fix time again?"

Hermione and Draco nodded, once again surprised at Elina's knowledge.

"How do you know all this?" Draco asked. "You don't seem surprised to see us at all."

Elina got up and began to pace around on the grass. "The two of you have been telling me the story of your time-traveling escapade for as long as I can remember. It was my favorite story when I was little, and I still like to hear it now, on occasion. The whole thing with you and the vampires and the Dark Lord, it's just extraordinary."

Hermione and Draco looked at each other for a moment, lost in the adventure themselves. But then Rosie interrupted again.

"Is that Elina you're carrying right now?" she asked, her eyes locked on Hermione's small bump.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, actually. That's why we came. We wanted to make sure she wasn't erased when we went back and saved the world. And now we know that she won't be, so we should probably be heading back in case we get seen by someone who isn't as knowledgeable about the reason for our presence as you are," she said quickly, looking at Elina.

At that, Elina's eyes lit up. "Can I come with you?"

"Is you coming with us part of the story we told you?" Draco asked.

Elina shook her head. "No."

"Well that's that then. I'm sorry," Hermione said sympathetically. "But we're having enough trouble handling this on our own."

"I know," Elina said grinning wickedly. "Father was supposed to get a hold of Gwen and Owen months ago wasn't he?"

Hermione nodded. "He was, but he wanted to make sure that you existed before he went off and left me alone."

"At least I have that in my favor," Draco replied, sounding defensive. "I had good intentions."

Elina nodded. "I know you did." She sighed and gazed at Hermione and Draco longingly. "I guess I'll see you in sixteen years then."

She turned away and motioned for Rosie to go with her back into the castle. Draco watched as she left and turned to Hermione appealingly. "Are you sure we can't take her with us? I mean, she already knows everything about everything."

"I know, but you heard what she said. Taking her with us was not part of the story we tell her and we don't want to mess things up anymore then we already have. Do you not specifically remember me telling you that when we did this, we would not mess things up in the process?"

Draco nodded. "You did say something like that. Let's go now and try and get a hold of Gwen and Owen. I don't think I can stay here much longer without doing something to mess things up."

He started to head toward the castle so he could say the spell to send them back. She followed, and then they heard Elina's voice once more, shouting.

"Mother! Father! It came true. I saw the younger you today! Do you want to come see?"

They turned just in time to see Elina running toward them, followed by two people. They walked closer to get a better look, and in spite of themselves, they watched as Elina approached once more, with older versions of themselves following her just as eagerly.


	10. Talking to Ourselves

The sight made Draco freeze in his tracks. Due to her previous time-traveling experience third year, Hermione was slightly better prepared mentally.

"The years have been good to us, don't you think?" she asked, grinning and elbowing him gently in the ribs.

"Yes," Draco replied somewhat dazedly as he winced gently for a moment and then followed Hermione to meet the older them.

"You certainly seem eager," he observed as they ran, "but if I may recall, it was you who told me only a few minutes ago that we should just leave here lest we interfere with time."

Hermione stopped and turned around. "You're right, I did say that," she agreed, then looked at her older self longingly and sighed. "It would be nice to be able to stay and talk, but I really think we should go." She turned and Draco followed, but at that moment, the voice called out.

"Where are you two going off to in such a hurry?"

At that, Hermione and Draco reluctantly turned around once more only to see that Elina was standing behind them looking eager.

"We told you," Hermione said patiently. "We need to go off and save the world and you can't come with us. That's all there is to it. Goodbye."

But before she could even move again, her older self strode up next to Elina. "I know you have to go, but couldn't you stay to talk for just a moment? I promise we won't do or say anything that will jeopardize what you plan to do."

Two impulses immediately began to play out in Hermione's brain. The first one said that she should keep moving and pretend like this had never happened so she could forget about it, and then things would continue to go on as planned, but another part wanted to stay and talk. It was herself who had made the request after all. How bad could things get? Her decision made, she called out to Draco, who was still walking away.

"Draco, get back here! We're going to stay and talk for awhile!"

At that, he stopped and turned, bounding back with surprising speed, grinning widely. "Sounds good. What changed your mind?"

"What changed my mind about going was that it was older me who asked me to stay and not you. I very much doubt that I will do anything to mess things up in any way, and after we have tea, we can go back home, see your mother and things will be just like they were before."

Draco nodded and they met up with their older selves and Elina back at the table. Hermione studied her older self with interest as they talked, wondering how old she actually was, but it was Draco who actually got up the nerve to ask the question.

"So, how old are we?" he asked his older self. The bluntness of the question made Hermione choke on her tea, which in turn made Elina giggle, even as she pounded her back.

"We're thirty-four," older Hermione answered, and Hermione and Draco nodded, each thinking that the years had indeed been very good to them. They looked much younger then that.

"So what did you want to talk to us about?" Hermione finally asked Elina.

Elina shook her head. "Nothing really in particular, I just wanted to be with younger you a bit longer." She then asked her mother if she had brought the warmer clothes she had requested. Her mother said she had, and then asked her father to come with to get the clothes.

As soon as they were gone, Elina looked at Hermione and Draco conspiratorially.

"I really asked you to stay a bit longer because even though I love you as my parents to pieces, you can still be a bit much sometimes."

Draco looked affronted. "How can I possibly be that bad? She's the one who's all about rules and good ethics and things like that!" he said, gesturing at Hermione.

Elina shook her head. "Having me around changed you. Mama rubbed off on you a bit, and now when I'm around, you can be as bad as she is. You always talk about how falling in love with Mama made you a better person then you were before and how grateful you are that all your reckless bad boy days are behind you."

Draco's mouth was hanging open now. "Are you saying that I've become _noble_, and have absolutely no remorse about it whatsoever?"

"Yes," Elina replied.

Draco then turned to watch as his older self carried Elina's trunk full of winter clothes towards them.

"I think I shall go have a talk with myself," he said.

"Don't say anything to mess things up!" Hermione called after him, but he made no sign of having heard her.

He approached himself quickly, and as soon as the trunk was on the ground, he blurted out "Elina told me everything! How could you do this to us? Turning nice and having no regret about it whatsoever?"

His older self didn't look at him. "You'll understand things better when you get back and become a parent," he said with his eyes on the trunk.

"Well, what if I don't want to go back, knowing that this is what happens when I do?" Draco asked defiantly. That made his older self look up.

"You have to go back," he said. "You can't stay here."

Draco nodded, his jaw set, his expression hard. "Yes, I can."

He then turned, walked back to the table and made his announcement: "everyone, I've decided to stay here, as I have no desire to be labeled as the good boy I seem to have become. When I finally do come back, that will not be the case."

Hermione frowned and looked about to hit him, but her older self put a restraining hand on her arm.

"Don't worry," she said patiently. "He's going to come to his senses. Things are unfolding exactly as they should."

Hermione tried to believe that, but it was very difficult, even with the assurance that Draco's plot of rebellion wouldn't mess up anything in the future.

"The thought of him having a heart is scaring him," her older self explained. "He doesn't want to admit that he actually cares about someone, especially someone from Gryffindor. This will be a problem when you get back. He won't speak to you, or even act like you're alive; at least not until the accident. That's when he'll take responsibility for what he did and really do something about it."


	11. The Amazing Effects of Butterbeer

"What accident?" Hermione asked, surprised. A strange expression crossed the face of her older self. It could have been called discomfort, or maybe reluctance.

"I can't tell you," her older self said finally. "The accident needs to happen, and if I told you what it was, then you would only try to prevent it."

"Are you saying that I'll try and mess up history on purpose if you tell me what the accident is? You should know me better then that!" Hermione cried, looking wounded.

"All right," there was a sigh and her older self looked her straight in the eye. "It happens when you and he get back to how things were, and when I say that, I mean completely back, to where you're in Gryffindor and once again friends with Ron and Harry. The accident involves a wild late night prank after the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match and some butterbeer laced with veritaserum, but that's all I'm going to tell you."

Now Hermione's curiosity was peaked to the point that it was almost painful. "So can I go assure Draco that it takes awhile before he becomes a good boy, and that he should come back with me?" she asked, even though that was not the question that was on her mind, and she had no doubt that her older self knew that.

"I think that would be a good idea. There isn't much more you can do around here, is there?"

Hermione shook her head and went to fetch Draco, who promptly tried to vault over the stone wall of the castle when he saw her coming.

"You don't have to worry," she told him, getting a grip on the back of his collar stop him. "You don't turn good right away, in fact for a really long time, you're still the biggest git in the universe. Now, will you come back with me?"

Draco finally stopped struggling against her and jumped down from the wall. "I guess so," he agreed reluctantly. His older self looked up at Hermione and gave her a small wink, as if to say thank you, but Draco didn't see it.

They met Elina a few minutes later and told her goodbye. She looked after them wistfully, but finally managed to step away and rejoin her parents, although it was very clear she still wanted to go with them very badly.

When they were out of sight of themselves, Draco took the book out of his bag again and he and Hermione scrunched themselves into a little niche beside the drawbridge.

"So are we going for Gwen and Owen now?" Draco asked as he flipped aimlessly through the pages of the spellbook.

Hermione shook her head. "I've been thinking a lot, and I've realized that we don't really need them anymore now that I'm going to do this with you. They were just going to be around for company when you were going to do it by yourself."

"But then how did Elina know about them if we don't even bring them with us in the first place?"

"Probably because we tell her that we were going to bring them along at the beginning, and she didn't think it was important enough to mention that we don't bring them along in the end."

Draco nodded and finally found the spell. "So then I take it we're going home?"

Hermione nodded, and Draco said the spell, and soon they were back in the library of the Manor.

* * *

"Well, that was fun," Draco commented as he put the book away.

"I guess," Hermione agreed. "I can't believe we're going to have a girl."

"I wonder how that's going to happen in actual time when we hate each other," Draco mused out loud.

_Wild late night quidditch prank, butterbeer, laced with veritaserum and…Elina!_ Hermione suddenly gasped as the realization hit her.

"What?" Draco said suddenly. "Are you all right? Should I go get my mother?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, it's nothing really. Just a momentary frightening thought, but I'm better now." She smiled, but he continued to look at her strangely, as if he wanted to ask her more questions, but then he thought better of it.

"All right," he replied smoothly, and made to leave the room. "I'm hungry. I think I'll go see what's for dinner. Probably not as much as usual since Mother and Father are out, but it'll be enough for us, don't you think?"

Hermione nodded and watched him go, then sat on the bed and sighed. This was going to be a very interesting school year.

Hermione came down to dinner about twenty minutes after that. Draco was already waiting for her and he eyed her curiously as she approached. "What took so long?" he asked. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Hermione nodded. "I just heard some things from my older self that were very interesting and needed time to digest them."

"Oh, really?" Draco asked, looking interested as he speared some potato with his fork and put it into his mouth, swallowing quickly. "Would you care to share?"

Hermione shook her head. "I can't. If I do, it will mess up the whole situation, and the situation needs to happen exactly as it does. Even _I _didn't get the specifics. Just the generalities."

"Well can I have the generalities?" his voice was beginning to show his impatience.

Hermione shook her head. "That would be a bad idea, especially when you aren't calm."

"I'm perfectly calm," Draco replied, trying to smooth the crinkle in his brow and get the agitation out of his voice.

Hermione said nothing more, but finished off the last of her orange and began to cut her chicken ferociously.

"Could you at least give me a little something?" he asked.

Hermione sighed and put her fork down. "It was about how we end up with Elina when we get back home," she said finally. "Initially, she's an accident." She sighed and looked down at her chicken, her appetite suddenly gone. "I'm tired. I think I'm going to go to bed."

And with that, she pushed her plate away and got up, leaving him all alone in the big dining room. He was so stunned by what she'd just revealed that he didn't get up to follow her, but instead stayed frozen in his chair. He couldn't believe that the pretty, smart girl he'd seen back at the castle had been an accident; the thought was almost too difficult to process. And it made him wonder what had happened to make her an accident? A thousand different scenarios began to crowd his mind and he considered every one of them.

Was it a bet he'd made with Blaise and his other mates? Did he bed Hermione for money and end up with a baby in the process? It was possible, even probable.

Or maybe it was part of a plot by Dumbledore for the cause of the house unity he was always trying to push. Maybe he'd made a deal with Hermione and Draco to get together and show the rest of the school how differences between houses didn't matter, and that no matter what they were capable of being together, and just to prove it, here's the evidence. That was less likely, but still couldn't be discounted.

Or what if, and the thought made him wince. What if they just got drunk one night and Elina was what came of it? Everyone would have a field day with that one, especially if that _was_ the case. He certainly hoped that wasn't the answer.

He got up and went to the bedroom where Hermione was awake, but buried under the covers. She sat up when he entered the room. "What's wrong? You look troubled."

"About Elina," he asked. "We don't just get drunk one night and let go with reckless abandon do we? You only have to tell me yes or no, nothing specific."

Hermione shook her head. "The only drink involved is butterbeer. Now goodnight."

She turned around and closed her eyes, leaving Draco to undress and ponder how ordinary butterbeer could be so fantastic as to bring on a baby.


	12. Feeling At Home Already

Hermione woke up the next morning to see Draco standing over her and gazing at her with concern.

"What's the matter?" she asked him with a yawn. "Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "I think that's what I should be asking you. You left dinner pretty quickly last night."

"I told you," she replied, sounding exasperated. "I was tired, that's all there is to it. It has absolutely nothing to do with Elina or our time traveling trip. Now let it go, please."

Draco nodded and dropped the subject, but he could tell from the look on her face that there was still something she wasn't telling him, and that that was what was really bothering her. He looked at her for a moment more, then went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

As soon as he was gone, Hermione threw the covers off herself and got out of bed. She felt torn. She wanted to tell Draco more about how Elina came to be, but she was worried about how he'd react; and she still remembered the warning of her older self: the prank had to happen, otherwise there'd be no Elina. Sighing, she put on a dressing gown, then waited for Draco to finish using the bathroom so she could wash her hair.

When he came out, he started at the sight of her on the other side of the door, and it made her giggle a little before she headed in and turned the shower on. While waiting for the water to warm up, she reflected a moment. As soon as she got under the warm spray, she had another flash of inspiration so exciting that she immediately jumped out of the shower, despite the fact that there was still soap in her hair, wrapped a fluffy pink towel around herself, and pushed the bathroom door open, shouting, "Elina might not be an accident after all!"

Draco looked up, surprised to see her soaking wet and covered in a towel. "Did you forget something?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head, still riled up over her sudden thought. "Didn't you hear me? I said that Elina might not be an accident after all!"

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, his eyebrows crinkling. "Of course she's an accident! She's born in a time where we hate each other! How else could we get a baby unless it's a result of a drunken fling, or a bet, or some other situation akin to those?"

Hermione frowned. "Do you want her to be, or do you want to hear what I have to say?"

Draco cleared his throat. "I _want _you to finish your shower. You still have shampoo lather in your hair, and you're dripping water all over the Persian rug."

Hermione looked down. Sure enough, there were now a few water splatter spots on the rug beneath her, and more were threatening to appear.

"Right," she said sheepishly, and went back into the bathroom. "But after I finish up and get dressed, we're going back," she said before she shut the bathroom door.

"How?" Draco asked. "We're still going to need someone to cast Priori Chronus in order to get back. Who are we going to get to cast it for us?"

"We'll find someone. After all, we are in a different place then we were the last time we heard about the rules for casting Priori Chronus. Maybe there aren't any here, and we can just cast it ourselves." And then she shut the door and turned the shower on again.

Draco sat on the bed digesting this. Hermione was right, they were in far more permissive times then they'd been before. He hurried out of the room and back into the library to see if he could find Priori Chronus in any of the spellbooks there.

It took what seemed like a thousand years, but finally, he found what he was looking for in a dusty, ancient-looking tome called _Spelles of Olde Tymes_. It wasn't called Priori Chronus, but it sounded similar. He quickly marked the page in the book and placed it on a chair. Then he realized Hermione was calling him, and probably had been for quite some time. He got up and walked over to the open library doors, calling out to her.

"Hermione, I'm in the library! I think I've found something!"

"What?" the voice sounded surprised, and then he heard pounding on the tiled floor as Hermione ran toward the sound of his voice. "Did you say you found Priori Chronus in one of the books here?"

"Well, not exactly," he replied. "But it sounds really similar, and I bet it will do the same thing for us."

Hermione walked into the library and he followed her, looking anxious. She saw the book and pointed. "Is that the book the spell's in?" she asked him. He nodded and she walked over and skimmed what he'd found.

"You know, this does sound remarkably similar," she said. "But what if it isn't as similar as it seems? What if we end up somewhere strange?" she read over the spell again. "I guess we could try it though, if you really wanted to."

He nodded. "Do you want to say it, or should I?" he asked her.

She handed him the book. "You found the spell, you should be the one to cast it."

He gave her a small grin. "You just don't want to be the one who feels guilty if we land someplace weird. That's why you're letting me cast the spell."

Hermione nodded, and he took the book from her, saying the spell in a strong, definite voice. As soon as he'd finished, a cold breeze blew into the open window and the library was plunged into sudden darkness.

* * *

When they could see again, Hermione and Draco found themselves standing on a pathway that overlooked a familiar little village.

"Do you feel as if we've been here before?" Draco asked. Hermione nodded.

"Remember, when Stanley comes and asks us if we want a ride, we thank him, but tell him no thanks and walk on. In fact, let's just start walking now." She began to do just that and Draco followed her.

"You don't need to tell me that," he told her, "I know what to do."

"Well, I just want to be sure of that because if I may recall, it was you that made us get into Stanley's car in the first place."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Look, I've told you a thousand times that I was sorry about that. Will you just let it go?"

Hermione stopped walking and looked at him incredulously. "No, I will not let it go. If you hadn't made Stanley die, then we would have never been thrown back into that weird place, I would have never had to be on good terms with Snape, and I would have never had to carry your spawn!"

Draco breathed sharply, and when Hermione looked up, he looked as if someone had slapped him.

"I don't believe it," he said quietly. "The whole experience of seeing the daughter we're going to have meant nothing to you?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Hermione took a deep breath. "I don't know why I said that, I'm sorry. But if we're going to compare that sort of thing, wasn't it you, during the same time-traveling trip, who said you didn't want to go back with me because you were afraid of turning noble?"

Draco nodded. "I guess so. I'm kind of eager to get back, though. I can't help but wonder how the two of us will make Elina simply by drinking butterbeer. And what did you mean when you jumped out of the shower this morning and said that Elina might not be an accident?"

Hermione smiled. "Well, it's not just plain butterbeer, but you'll see what happens when it happens," she said.

At that moment, the familiar car of Stanley Granger came coughing and gasping up the road. He stopped right next to them, pulled the window down, and asked them if they wanted a ride down to town.

Draco was about to answer, but Hermione beat him to the punch. "Thank you, but no. We actually don't need to go to town. We just stopped here to, um, enjoy the view. The town looks so pretty from up here."

He looked at them oddly for a moment, then wished them a pleasant day and drove off. As she watched him disappear, Hermione felt a surge of triumph. They had changed history, and they were going home. Then a small twinge in her stomach brought home another truth, this one sobering. She was no longer pregnant, and the next time she would be, it would be at Hogwarts, within sight of Ron and Harry.

She turned to Draco. "Did you remember to grab the book so we can get the rest of the way home?"

He nodded, chuckling to himself. "I can't believe you told Stanley that we came up here to look at the view. What kind of pathetic excuse is that?"

"Just read," Hermione snapped. She was beginning to feel at home already.


	13. The World Right Side Up?

As soon as Draco finished reading the spell, the earth below their feet began to shake, and as much as she didn't want to, Hermione had to rely on Draco to support her so she wouldn't fall over. But luckily, the earthquake didn't last long and she was soon able to let go.

"What do you think that was?" she asked as soon as the two of them had separated.

"I don't know. Probably just something to do with the weather," Draco shrugged and began to pace. "I hope the spell works quickly," he muttered. "I can't wait to get home."

"Oh, and you think I can?" Hermione asked, looking at him bitterly. He gave her a look and continued to walk back and forth. Finally, when nothing changed, Hermione picked the book up and looked it over.

"Are you certain you read the spell right?" she asked. "Nothing seems to be happening."

Draco stopped pacing and walked over to her looking impatient. "Of course I read it right! Why in bloody hell wouldn't I?"

"I don't know!" Hermione shot back. "But I'm going to read it too, just in case." And she did, but this time, something different happened. After the ground shook a bolt of lightning shot down and struck them, causing them to disappear, hopefully sending them back to their own time.

They landed quite abruptly on the cold stone floor of the Great Hall, right next to the Ravenclaw house table. They blinked as they slowly came into awareness, and as they stood up from the floor, they realized that they'd interrupted the sorting, and that everyone was looking at them.

Not knowing what to say, they just apologized to Professor McGonagall, who was looking profoundly stunned and hurried to their usual seats at their usual house tables.

After a few more minutes of silence, the sorting continued, but neither Ron nor Harry was paying any attention to the nervous-looking line of first years up front. Instead, both of their gazes were focused on Hermione.

"Where were you?" Harry asked. "And why in the world did you just suddenly fall from the ceiling like that?"

"Did I really fall from the ceiling?" Hermione asked, stunned.

"Yes," Harry nodded. "The sorting was going on, and then there was this gigantic thunder crash, the ceiling began to move and shift as if it really were the sky outside and not just a ceiling that looks like it, and then you and Malfoy just appeared out of nowhere and landed on the floor."

"Speaking of Malfoy," Ron interjected, "how was an entire summer of being married to him? What happened after Valerian showed up?"

"Well, Ariella and Valerian took us to this other house called Alstere, and then we sort of realized that we were capable of tolerating each other. Then we tried to stop Ariella from sacrificing herself to the vampires, but that didn't work out, but Harry, did you know that a relative of yours dated a relative of Mrs. Weasley's a long time ago, and that the two of them were Ariella's best friends? It was a really weird thing to see, but explaining how I found that out would take a really long time.

"Then when we meant to go back here, we accidentally killed my muggle-great-grandfather before he and Ariella could get married, and after _that_, the really weird stuff happened and we time-traveled into a weird and twisted universe where I was a pure-blood Slytherin, Draco and I were married, his parents loved me, I was going to have his baby, Voldemort took over the world, and you two were both dead. Then we got out of that, and here we are."

She paused and breathed deeply while Ron and Harry watched her with stunned looks on their faces.

"Did you just say that you spent a bit of this summer being Slytherin, happily married to Malfoy and pregnant with his baby?" Ron finally managed to choke out.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "But as you can see, I'm clearly none of those things now. It's kind of a shame though. We met the baby we would have had, and she was actually a decent, loving person."

Ron and Harry said nothing, and Hermione decided not to tell them at that point that the aforementioned baby would still be on the way, even in this reality. They looked like she'd told them enough about her summer adventures for one day.

After the plates were cleared away, Professor Dumbledore told Hermione and Draco to come to his office because he wanted to have a talk with them.

"Did you two have a pleasant summer holiday after I left?" he asked them, a twinkle in his eye. Despite the fact that their mutual dislike for one another had returned, they now looked at each other uneasily.

"Pleasant wouldn't be the word I'd use, Professor," Hermione said finally. "I believe 'interesting' would be a more appropriate word to describe what things were like after you, Ron and Harry left."

Dumbledore looked at Draco for confirmation and he just nodded.

"I see," Dumbledore replied. "Miss Granger, I overheard you talking with Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley at dinner. The two of you did a lot of time-traveling, did you?"

Draco nodded. "We ended up in this place where she was a pureblood Slytherin and the two of us were married and expecting a baby." He looked pained, especially as he said the last part, as if someone were making him swallow something nasty.

"Did you really, now?" Dumbledore's eyes lit up. "And how was that experience?"

"It was all right I guess," Hermione conceded, "seeing as circumstances were different, and we weren't complete opposites."

Draco nodded again but said nothing.

"And we also met the baby we were going to have before we had her; she was actually very nice."

"You seem surprised by that," Dumbledore noted.

"Yes, well you know, with him for a father I didn't think-" Hermione motioned at Draco and then seemed to lose her train of thought. It was now Dumbledore's turn to lapse into silence.

Finally, he said to Hermione "Are you saying that you believe Draco would have a negative influence on the child?"

Hermione nodded.

Dumbledore looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Thank you, that will be all. Good evening to you both."

Draco and Hermione both stood up and left the office, Draco crowding Hermione out, and earning himself a look that could kill.

* * *

In the Gryfffindor common room, Harry and Ron sat Hermione by the fire and continued to question her about what she'd told them earlier, and continued to be amazed and repulsed by her answers. 

"I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight," Ron commented when the three of them finally decided to go to bed. "I'll keep seeing images of you and Malfoy in bed together every time I close my eyes." Harry nodded in agreement.

"Well, you were the one who asked about it," Hermione reminded him. "So you can hardly blame me. Good night you two."

They bade her goodnight, and the three of them separated.

In her four-poster bed that evening, Hermione tried to adjust to sleeping alone for the first time in awhile. She hadn't realized how much she'd gotten used to having Draco sleeping next to her. She kept tossing and turning, trying to take up as much of the bed as she could so it wouldn't seem so empty, but all her efforts were unsuccessful, and she only managed to sleep fitfully, visions of her and Draco's green and gold room at their house dancing behind her eyes.

* * *

Draco wasn't faring much better. 

"Stupid Mudblood," he muttered to himself, for it was thoughts of her in the other reality that were preventing him from sleeping. He got up on his knees in the bed, punched the pillow a few more times and then collapsed back down on it, shutting his eyes tightly. He saw nothing but darkness for a few happy minutes, but just as his body was beginning to relax, he saw the image of Granger wrapped up in the pink towel and standing by the bathroom door. She was smiling and looking so…

He quickly opened his eyes once more and sat up. That was it; he knew he had no chance of sleeping tonight. He threw the covers off of himself and left the dormitory for the common room, where he sat in one of the large chairs and stared into the empty fireplace until Blaise came to get him in the morning.

* * *

After Hermione and Draco had left his office, Dumbledore had shut the door behind him and smiled to himself. This was very convenient. He knew that the experiences of the past summer had affected them more then they'd like to admit, but he knew that it would take something pretty powerful to make them admit their feelings, even to themselves. He sat down at his desk and began to think of a way to make it happen. 


	14. A Surprise Student

A/n- sorry about the lack of update, everyone. With finals and the holidays, things were a bit hectic, but I hope this next chapter makes up for it!

Hermione woke up with a sore back, a stiff neck, and horrible memories of the dreams she'd had about Malfoy the night before. She'd thought that her brain would have just stopped at showing her their former bedroom, but apparently a few other memories had managed to cement themselves in her brain as well, things that she would do well to forget.

Groaning and feeling as if somebody had dropped a stack of large books on various parts of her body, she slowly got out of bed and dressed, yawning every few minutes. It was a long process, and when she looked into the mirror upon its completion, she realized that she might have been better off not getting out of bed at all.

When Ron and Harry got a good look at her, they felt it would be best not to say anything more then hello, especially after Ron earned a sour look for asking "how did you sleep last night, Hermione?" Instead, they kept their eyes averted and talked about neutral topics, like the hard Transfiguration assignment that they would undoubtedly get that day, or how the sun was shining and it was undoubtedly nice and warm outside.

When they arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast, Hermione was dismayed to discover that it was already packed with people. She'd hoped that she'd be able to get a piece of toast, eat it, and then leave without the whole school seeing the effects of her bad night. Sadly, that was not to be.

Ron spied Neville sitting next to three empty chairs. He looked up as they sat down, grinning as he swallowed his eggs.

"Hey, did you hear the announcement?"

"What announcement?" Ron asked curiously. "Would it explain why everyone is up so early?"

Neville nodded. "It seems that a new student showed up last night, and supposedly we're going to sort her. I hope she's in Gryffindor. I heard she's really smart."

At that moment, the student-to-be strode by the Gryffindor table and Ron, Harry and Neville got a good look at her. She was beautiful, there was no doubt, with her black hair and big gray eyes, and the fact that she was so close to them made Harry and Ron especially feel a little fuzzy.

Harry then tapped Hermione on the shoulder to distract her from staring at Malfoy, who, happily, was looking just as bad as she was: his eyes were puffy and had dark shadows underneath and his face was drawn. His body also seemed very tense. Pansy was trying to engage him in conversation, but was getting nowhere.

"What is it Harry?" she asked somewhat grumpily as she felt him poke her hard in the shoulder.

"The new student is going to be sorted now!" he told her, pointing up at the front of the room. She got a glimpse of the girl, and then, as Ron and Harry looked on, stunned, she passed out.

* * *

Things weren't much different at the Slytherin table. Pansy had been trying to tell Draco all the things she'd heard about the new student, and he'd finally torn his eyes away from Granger to shut her up. When he saw the girl, his face lost all color; he shut his eyes a few times, took a few deep breaths, then stood up on shaky legs. 

"Pansy, I don't feel well," he said, eyes on the girl. "I think I need to go to the hospital wing."

She nodded and stood up to go with him, thinking that he would fall and hurt himself if he went alone. He shook his head at her and motioned for her to sit back down.

"I just feel a little headache coming on, that's all. I should be able to make it there on my own." And he bolted before she could say or do another thing.

* * *

When he reached the hospital wing, he wasn't surprised to find that Hermione was already there in a bed. He sat down on the one next to her just as she was opening her eyes. 

"Did you see her too?"

He nodded. "How do you think she got here?"

Hermione sat up. "I think the answer to that shouldn't be too difficult. We have a meeting with Dumbledore, and then the next day Elina shows up. Does that answer your question about how she got here?"

Draco sighed and stood up, pacing around the infirmary. "Dumbledore obviously has something up his sleeve. He probably brought her here to spy on us and make sure we aren't too terrible to each other." Then suddenly he stopped and looked at Hermione. "I thought you said she came about as a result of something magical, something involving Quidditch and butterbeer."

Hermione shrugged. "It could have been a lie. Knowing myself and my tendency to want to keep things from being messed up, older me might have told younger me a little white lie that sounded completely credible, so we wouldn't try to distract Dumbledore from his mission."

"Yes, and older you probably let Elina in on the idea, so she wouldn't say anything about it either." Draco sat down hard on the bed and was about to say more when Madame Pomfrey entered the room and eyed him, motioning for him to lie down.

"I can't believe this. Heard from some professors that the two of you came in falling from the ceiling in the Great Hall and now here you are. And on the first day of the term, too. You don't waste any time, do you?"

Draco rolled his eyes and lay down on the bed as he'd been instructed. "We aren't here because of the fall from the ceiling. We are here because we saw something unsettling and we're a bit shaken up."

The nurse let Draco go and looked up at Hermione. "Is what he says true? I would figure that after all you've been through it would take a lot more then just a shock to get you here."

"He's correct," Hermione confirmed. "But the circumstances of why we're here are a bit complicated. There's a new student, and we met her over the summer holiday. We knew that we were going to see her again, but we didn't realize that it would be so soon, so it was a big surprise."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Madame Pomfrey abandoned the two of them to go see who it was. She came back a few minutes later with Dumbledore trailing behind her. He looked at the two of them for a moment, then turned back to the nurse.

"Poppy, would it be all right if I spoke to these two alone for a few minutes? I trust they are in excellent health?"

"A little shaken, but otherwise fine," she admitted. "I'll leave the three of you alone."

"Thank you," Dumbledore told her, inclining his head, then he turned back to Draco and Hermione as she shut the door behind her.

"Am I correct in assuming," he asked, grinning and with a slight twinkle in his eye, "that the two of you have some questions to ask of me?"

Draco was about to stand up, his mouth open, but Hermione put a restraining hand on his arm. "I'll handle it," she told him, and he sat back down.

"What we really want to know is what Elina is doing here. It's going to be a bit difficult bringing her into this reality for real if we know that another version is walking around the castle."

"I thought that would be it," Dumbledore answered, nodding. "But based on your interactions in the past, and the influences of certain friends of yours, I felt that you would need more then just yourselves to recreate what you had in the past. I fear that if Elina is not here as a constant reminder of what was and will be, the two of you will succumb to outside influences instead of really listening to what you really feel."

Hermione nodded. "But won't it be a bit awkward to have to explain to Ron and Harry or Blaise and Pansy who she is? I mean, if she gets sorted into one of our houses."

"I have thought about that problem," he answered. "Elina will not be put in either Slytherin or Gryffindor, but instead in Ravenclaw. The prefects have already been told that they're getting a new student."

"But if you already know where you're putting her, then why go through with the sorting at all?" Draco asked.

"What is happening this morning, Mr. Malfoy, is not a sorting, but rather an introduction of Elina to the school."

"What about her classes?" Hermione asked.

"The school you send her to in the future is very similar to Hogwarts in terms of curriculum. She will have no problem with the material that is learned in seventh year. One of you shall be in class with her at all times, and if Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Zabini or Miss Parkinson inquires about her identity, I suggest you tell them what you have told Madame Pomfrey: That Elina is a girl you met over the summer during your time at Alstere House."

The two of them nodded, and when the door opened again, they weren't as surprised to see Elina enter the room.

"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," she greeted him. "Didn't you tell me to meet you here?"

Dumbledore nodded at her. "Yes, Elina. Take a seat, and we shall discuss the terms of your being here."

Elina took a seat next to Hermione and Dumbledore continued. "The most important thing you have to remember is that you are among your parents' peers here, Elina. Under no circumstances do you mention to anyone that they are your parents. Is that clear? When you speak to them, call them Draco and Hermione, as awkward as that may be."

Elina nodded. "That won't be too hard for me to remember. They've told me so many stories about the house rivalries that I would be stupid to mention such a thing to anyone."

Dumbledore smiled. "Second, you will have every one of your classes with at least one of them, and in most cases, both. Try and be within sight and blend in the classes. I trust you to be able to do what I called you here to do."

Elina nodded, then looked down at her schedule and up at Hermione and Draco. "Which one of you has Charms first? Or is it both of you?"

Hermione and Draco looked at one another and sighed. It was going to be quite a year.


	15. A Taste of New Reality

After a few more minutes, Draco and Hermione left the hospital wing with Elina trailing behind them, chattering lightly.

"I couldn't believe it when Professor Dumbledore showed up at school last night and told me that I get to spend my last year of school here. I had trouble believing him at first, but he seemed serious enough, so I caught on after awhile."

At that point, Draco stopped and motioned for Elina to walk beside him. "Elina, did you know about this beforehand?" he asked her. "Tell me honestly. Did Hermione or I mention it to you in the future? You're being a very good actress right now, but I find it hard to believe that you could show up here out of the blue. Were there some things that we weren't told when we visited you in case that knowledge would mess up future events?"

Elina paused for a moment, then looked up into his eyes, holding her books to her chest. "Yes," she answered quietly. "I knew I was going to come here a long time ago. It's always been part of what you told me."

Draco nodded. Then Hermione spoke up. "And what about the story I was told concerning how you come to be? Does it really involve Quidditch pranks and butterbeer?"

Elina's eyes widened. "Well, to be frank, I've never actually asked for specifics on that part of the story, because who honestly wants to think about their parents having sex? But knowing you and the situation as I do, I don't think it would be something as childish as pranks and potion-laced butterbeer."

Hermione and Draco looked at one another, relieved. "That's good to hear," Hermione said finally.

Elina nodded. "I can't wait to meet your friends. They all sound really nice from what I've heard of them."

"I would love to hear the stories that Draco tells you to make you think his friends sound nice," Hermione commented.

Elina frowned. "Why is that? What do you think of them, Hermione?" as she said the name, she winced. "Sorry about that. It just sounds a bit weird to me." She then looked at Hermione expectantly, but then Draco cleared his throat and hastily changed the subject.

"You know Elina, we will eventually have the talk about this reality and the relationship between Hermione and my friends, but it will have to be another time, perhaps sometime tonight when we all don't have class on our minds. Now, do you have any questions about Hogwarts' classes or professors?"

Elina shook her head. "No, I think I'm all right on that front."

The three walked on in silence after that until they reached the Charms classroom, and Draco left for Potions. When she and Elina entered the classroom, Hermione was surprised to find that every eye in the entire room was trained on them. Feeling like an exhibit at a circus, she saw a seat beside Ron and Harry and quickly sat down. She motioned at Elina, who grinned and nodded, coming to take the only remaining seat in the row.

"Now," Professor Flitwick began as he hauled himself onto his stack of books so he could be seen by everyone in the class, "I hope you will not be surprised when I tell you that the things you will learn in this room this year will be more difficult then anything you have encountered before. And as I'm sure you also know, at the end of this year, you will take your N.E.W.T.s, the most challenging exams Hogwarts can offer. It is my job to make sure that you are properly prepared for them, and it is your responsibility to do the best you can to make sure you are ready when they arrive. Therefore, if at any time you feel that you don't understand what we are learning in class, you must get help so that you do understand what we are learning. At this point, you cannot afford to be behind. Am I clear?"

The class nodded, and there was no talking except for the occasional question during the lecture.

After the class period ended, Hermione and Elina left the classroom with Ron and Harry, who were still looking at Elina with expressions of awe on their faces, as if she were a veela instead of a normal witch.

After Charms, they had a break, and so the four of them headed outside to talk under the large tree, where both girls helped Ron and Harry with their homework assignments, which were tough as Professor Flitwick had warned them. But naturally, that was not a concern for Elina. She was more focused on the general atmosphere of the castle.

"Is everyone usually so tense around here?" she asked. "I watched faces on the way out here and everyone seems really nervous."

"It's probably nothing," Hermione replied dismissively as she siphoned spilled ink off Ron's Charms essay. "I'd chalk it up to seventh-year jitters. And the speech Professor Flitwick gave us in class about the N.E.W.T.s probably didn't help much either."

Elina nodded and went back to helping Harry. "It's good to know things aren't always so gloomy. Otherwise I would want to go back home."

* * *

Eventually it was time to pack up their things and go to Transfiguration. They walked into the castle, and Hermione decided she needed to have a drink of water, and then told Elina to go ahead of her while she used the toilet. Elina nodded and continued on her way, Hermione having told her the general direction to go. Just before she reached the Transfiguration classroom however, she heard voices coming from a small hallway that branched off from the main hallway, which made her pause because she thought one of them belonged to Draco, and she thought that it would be nice to introduce herself to his friends. 

She slowly peeked around the edge of the hallway and surveyed the group for a few minutes. It was indeed Draco and his friends, two rather burly boys, a tall black boy and a girl who looked somewhat piggish, but maybe that was just her mother's influence. They were making plans of some sort, involving Gryffindor, which was Hermione, Harry and Ron's house.

Elina cleared her throat causing the chatter to cease, and the group, with exception of Draco, to turn around immediately and glare at her.

"What do _you_ want?" the girl asked somewhat nastily. Something in her tone made Elina prickle.

"It's nothing Pansy," Draco said quickly. "She won't cause any trouble for us, so just leave her alone."

The girl backed off a little, but she still looked very angry. Feeling bold, Elina stepped into the group. "Thank you for the support Draco, but I believe I'm old enough to handle myself in situations such as these and don't need help from anyone." Then she looked at Pansy, who was now looking slightly stunned.

"As Draco told you, I didn't come here to cause trouble. Since I'm new here, I thought I would introduce myself and try to be friendly because it worked well with another group of people I met today, but I was obviously wrong."

"And who was this other group?" the tall black boy asked her.

"A girl named Hermione Granger and her friends," Elina told him.

"Wait a minute," Pansy said. "You're friends with Hermione Granger and you expect us to be nice to you? Do you have any idea how things are around here between Hermione Granger's house and ours?"

"Oh, yes I do," Elina nodded solemnly. "More then you'll ever know."

"Elina, don't you have a class you should be getting to?" Draco asked pointedly. "We'd be more then happy to finish this discussion at a later time."

Elina blinked. He was right, she realized. She did have a class to get to. She sighed, told Draco goodbye and hurried to the Transfiguration classroom that fortunately was not very far away.

As she watched the girl hurry away, Pansy turned to frown at Draco. "Now what was that all about?" she asked. "What is going on with you to make you be nice to someone who's friends with Hermione Granger?"

"It's nothing really, she's just new, that's all," Draco replied evasively.

"How much do you think she heard?" Blaise asked.

"Probably nothing," Draco answered. He looked at the clock on the wall. "We have an hour left of our free time. What do the two of you want to do now?"

Blaise and Pansy just looked at one another. Draco was acting strangely, and the reason why was connected to the new girl. There was something he wasn't telling him. They would have to find it out themselves.

* * *

"I think Draco and his mates are plotting something against Gryffindor," Elina said breathlessly as she plopped down next to Hermione. 

"It can't be anything too bad, considering his promise to Dumbledore," Hermione replied. "I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you. In this reality he does stuff like that all the time."

Elina nodded, but something inside of her told her there was more to the plot then Hermione believed. She would have to be on her guard for all of them.


	16. Making Adjustments

When Hermione, Draco and Elina met in the Three Broomsticks later that day, Elina was careful not to mention more about what she'd seen and heard between Draco and his two friends; she was suspicious, but she didn't want to make trouble until she had absolute proof that something was going to happen.

"So Elina," Draco began, not noticing her morose expression, "I know this might seem like a stupid question, but how has your first day at Hogwarts been?"

"Fine," Elina answered emptily. She really didn't know how to talk to him now, save for monosyllabic answers. She thought that if she said too much, she'd say something that might upset him, or give away what she suspected.

"Elina did really well in Transfiguration today," Hermione told him. "You should have seen her. She talked almost more then I did, and by the time class was over, I think even Professor McGonagall was a bit overwhelmed to have the two of us in the same class."

She and Draco chuckled, for a moment, then they looked at her expectantly, as if they expected her to laugh too. She didn't see the humor, but she gave them a smile anyway, even though her heart wasn't quite in it.

"Hogwarts isn't much different from my other school, as I'm sure Professor Dumbledore has already told you, and I already knew most of the things I heard today. Did I do something wrong? Should I have talked less in class?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, it's just that I have a bit of a reputation as the know-it-all for our year, and I don't think anyone ever expected me to be surpassed in that capacity."

"Oh," Elina nodded, then said quickly "Hermione, will you come to the bathroom with me?"

"All right," Hermione looked at her with surprise for a moment, and then got up and followed her to the girls' bathroom, where thankfully they were the only ones present. "What's going on?" Hermione asked as soon as the two of them were seated on a conveniently placed couch.

"How do you do it?" Elina asked.

"How do I do what?" Hermione replied.

"How can you sit at the same table with Draco and chat with him knowing that he's plotting to do terrible things to you and your friends? It's driving me mad being here with him. I'm afraid I'm going to give myself away any minute!"

"You _do _seem a bit tense," Hermione agreed. "But it's only because you haven't been in this reality long enough. Once you spend enough time around Draco here, you'll learn that he isn't as wicked as he might seem, and it just takes a little skill to be able to deal with him."

"What kind of skill?" Elina asked curiously.

"The ability to throw a punch is helpful," Hermione told her. She was about to launch into the tale of how she almost broke Draco's nose third year, but then she stopped. "Don't you know all of this already? I mean, have I told you any of this back where you're from?"

Elina shook her head. "You say that telling me stuff like that only brings up bad memories, and that as Draco is a changed man, there should be no reason to tell me how to bring him down."

"I take it though, that I don't refer to him as Draco in front of you."

Elina shook her head. "You say 'your father' instead."

Hermione nodded. "Well, back to your original question, just try to act normal, as if you never saw what you saw. It's probably nothing; just some prank that the five of them are going to pull that will probably land them in detention. You don't want to be on bad terms with him if your worries turn out to be unfounded, do you?"

Elina shook her head.

"Well then, let's go back to the table, order some drinks, and discuss more about your first day. What do you think about that?"

This time, Elina managed a real smile, and as the two of them left the bathroom, they were surprised to find Draco standing right outside the door.

"Sorry!" he cried as they jumped at the sight of him. "You two were gone for awhile, so I was just coming to see if you were all right. You are all right aren't you? No illness or anything?"

"No," Elina shook her head. "We were just discussing girl stuff."

"Oh." Draco nodded, then turned and led them back to the table. Hermione gave Elina a wink, and then the two of them took their seats.

"Do we want to order anything?" Draco asked. "Are the two of you hungry?"

Elina asked for a butterbeer, and Hermione nodded. Draco went to pick them up, and when he returned, the conversation finally resumed after each of them had taken a long swig from their mugs.

"Like Hermione was saying, Transfiguration did go very well," Elina began. "I think this year is going to be quite wonderful."

"I checked my schedule, and tomorrow the Ravenclaws have double Potions with the Slytherins," he told her. "It seems like you'll be having class with me."

"I can't wait," Elina replied. "Maybe then I'll be able to get on better terms with your friends."

"Don't worry too much about this afternoon," Draco advised her. "Pansy and Hermione don't get along too well, and that makes her look with disfavor upon anyone in connection with her."

Just then, the little bell that was over the door of the pub jingled and Pansy walked in with Blaise just behind her. She immediately made a beeline for the table when she spied Draco, but stopped short when she saw who he was with, causing Blaise to bump into her from behind.

"Draco, I didn't expect to see you here," she said, blinking at him. It wasn't hard for Elina to add in the words Pansy didn't say. _Didn't expect to see you here with_ _them_ was more like it.

Elina eyed Draco to see what excuse he'd come up with as to why he was in Hermione's company that would still be acceptable in Pansy's eyes.

"Well Pansy," he said finally, "I just thought I'd show Elina here around all the good places, since she's new and everything."

"Yes, and I told him that I would only come if Hermione could come too," Elina added. "She was so nice to me today, making me feel welcome when I didn't know anyone at Hogwarts."

Pansy looked at Elina for a second more before gesturing at Blaise to bring over two more chairs. "I hope you don't mind if we join you," she said sweetly as she took her seat. "I especially want to take this opportunity to apologize for my less then welcoming behavior today."

"Well thank you very much," Elina replied. "That means a lot." She hoped that Pansy and Blaise would leave now that they'd said what they'd come to say, but she didn't move and neither did Blaise.

"So, what were the three of you talking about before we showed up?" Pansy asked, looking at each of the three of them in turn.

"School," Draco said simply.

"Oh, yes," Pansy nodded. "Seems like it'll be really hard this year doesn't it?"

At that, Elina smirked. "Maybe for you," she said under her breath, hoping Pansy wouldn't hear.

But it seemed that Pansy did, despite Elina's best efforts, and for a minute, her saccharine expression iced over before smoothing out again. "Blaise, look at the time!" she cried suddenly, looking at the clock, "it's later then I thought. We should probably be heading back. Are you three coming?"

Draco looked up at the clock too, swallowed the last of his butterbeer and stood up. "I think we should," he told the other two. They got up and the five kids walked out of the Three Broomsticks and into the cool September night, Pansy and Blaise doing their best to stay a good distance ahead of Draco, Hermione and Elina.

* * *

Back at castle, Draco said goodbye to Elina and Hermione as he left with Blaise and Pansy for the dungeons. Hermione then escorted Elina to Ravenclaw tower before giving her a quick hug and wishing her goodnight. Then Hermione walked to Gryffindor tower alone and collapsed onto her four-poster bed.

* * *

In her own bed, Pansy lay awake, still pondering what Draco could possibly be doing with the new girl and Granger. And had she imagined it, or had he actually looked _happy_ to be in their company? The new girl was a bit cheeky, but she and Blaise had decided that the best course of action was to be on good terms with her. If they were going to get answers out of anyone, she was probably the safest bet. 


	17. Potions Class

The following morning, Elina opened her eyes and got out of bed with extreme reluctance. She wasn't looking forward to potions, even if it did mean spending time in Draco's presence without Hermione, which was something that had never happened before. She'd get to see for certain if Hermione was really serious about his "big man" demeanor.

No, it wasn't Draco she was worried about, but rather Pansy and the other boy, she couldn't remember his name. She couldn't help but recall the way Pansy had tried to buddy up to her and make good with her last night, when just a few hours before, the girl had treated her like she was the carrier of some horrible disease. It was just _weird_.

Elina finally counseled herself to sit up and stretched her arms slowly over her head, yawning hugely. She then blinked and looked around, realizing that the dormitory was empty, and a look at the clock told her that she'd woken up extremely late.

With a squeal, she threw herself out of bed and landed catlike on the floor, standing up quickly, she began to run crazily around the room, throwing robes out of her wardrobe until she finally found one that she liked. She threw it on and ran a brush through her ratty hair, gazing mournfully into her hand mirror when she realized that "frizzy mess" would have to be the look of the day. Throwing her books into her bag, she ran down to the dungeons without pausing to take a breath. When she reached them, she made a flying leap through the classroom door, squealing as she landed nose first on the hard stone floor.

Whimpering, she rubbed at her face for a moment, and then looked up into the hard, unforgiving eyes of Severus Snape.

"Tell me," he said softly, dangerously, "is it a custom where you come from to be late for class? Or do you have another good reason that you would care to share with us?"

Elina felt herself begin to shake. "No, sir," she replied shakily, not taking her eyes off him, and especially trying not to blink. "I guess I just overslept. I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I'll go take my seat now."

She stood up, but he was still looking at her, so she didn't move. "I'm afraid the only seat you will take is the one in the Headmaster's office across from his desk. Go now."

He glared at her for a few more moments, and she just nodded and said nothing. Just as she turned to go however, Draco spoke.

"Sir," he addressed Snape, "it really isn't her fault. Where she last went to school, classes started much later in the day. She really isn't trying to be troublesome; it's just a little misunderstanding."

"You know her, Draco?" Snape asked, his eyes finally leaving Elina.

"Yes," Draco nodded. "I met her over the summer. Her parents are very upstanding."

"Do I know them?" Snape asked.

"No," Elina said quickly, stepping away from the door. "Well, actually yes, oh never mind." She quickly shut her mouth when she noticed that Draco frowning at her and shaking his head.

"So does she still have to go to the Headmaster?" Draco asked.

"No," Snape shook his head. "But she will have to remember to set an alarm next time." And Elina crossed the dungeon and took a seat beside Draco, waiting for class to start.

* * *

Elina left the dungeons two hours later feeling much better then she had when she'd entered them. When Draco came out a little while later, he motioned for her to walk with him. 

"Have a bit of trouble waking up this morning?" he asked her."

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did. Thanks for sticking up for me."

"It's nothing really," he shrugged. "What are parents for? And speaking of which, I suggest that we don't mention that to anyone. Unless Dumbledore said it was all right for you to do so?"

Elina shook her head. "He didn't. He just said for me to tell people that I know you from over the summer holidays."

"Well, then we should probably stick to that, shouldn't we?"

Elina nodded. "I guess you're right. And I know this might seem like an odd question, but have you noticed that Pansy is acting really nice to me? Yesterday she treated me like dirt and now she wants to be my best friend!"

"It's probably because you're with me," Draco said knowingly. "Pansy sees that the two of us are friendly, and she figures that if she makes good with you, that will score her points with me. She loves the idea of being my number one."

"But what about Hermione?" Elina asked, feeling her heart sink. "Are you saying that you aren't even going to try to make good with her?"

Draco took a sharp breath. "Don't you understand?" he asked sharply. "I can't do that around here. You know that, right? You've told us that everything has been explained to you, you know why things have to be the way they are."

"Well, yes I do, but I thought that you could be bigger then that," Elina replied, feeling herself start to tear up. "But fine, you can let Pansy paw all over you, it doesn't matter to me. You just keep on being less then the person you can be. I hope it'll leave you satisfied!"

And she turned away from him as she felt herself burst into tears. Shrugging off his calming hand on her shoulder, she ran for the library, hoping to talk with Hermione.

* * *

"Elina, are you all right? What's the matter?" Hermione looked up from the book she was reading as soon as Elina entered the library sniffling and letting escape a few dry, heaving sobs. She stood up and ushered Elina into a chair, handing her a tissue. 

Elina blew her nose and then started to speak, then paused as she noticed Ron and Harry were watching her curiously.

"Do you two mind?" Hermione asked pointedly. "We need to have a little heart to heart talk." Ron and Harry rolled their eyes, picked up their books and moved to another table.

"Now," Hermione said in a low voice, "what's the matter?"

"It's a stupid thing really," Elina whispered back, "something I shouldn't even be upset about, but I was in Potions with Draco today, and I told him that I thought it was weird that Pansy is suddenly trying to buddy up to me when just yesterday she was wishing me to hell. He shrugged it off and told me she was probably doing it so that he'd like her, and the two of them would get together or something. And then, I don't know what came over me, but I just got upset and started berating him for not even trying to make good with you.

"I know the way things are around here, you've told me for years, like I've said before, but I guess actually being here has sort of made me a bit overly optimistic. I keep thinking that my presence will change both of you and turn this world into one resembling something I'm familiar with."

"I know it's hard to see and hear things like Draco and Pansy being a couple," Hermione put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "But he's still nice to you, right?"

Elina nodded. "I didn't set my alarm and was late to Potions today. Professor Snape was going to send me to Dumbledore for punishment, but Draco talked him out of it."

"Well, what do you know?" Hermione gave a small laugh. "Draco and Snape have always gotten along, and it's good to know that at least for you he uses that power for good and not evil."


	18. Gift and Curse

Elina spent the rest of the day feeling as if she were completely removed from her body. She raised her hand and talked in class, giving all the right answers of course, but her heart wasn't really in it. She'd decided that that was the only way for her to handle being here until she'd fully adjusted. She didn't want to freak out in front of her parents again and go off on some completely irrational rant like she had this morning; that had just been embarrassing, but at least Pansy hadn't tried anything else.

But as they say, good things don't last forever. As Elina was heading down to dinner, Pansy snuck up and got into step beside her.

"Hello," she greeted cheerily, nearly causing Elina to jump out of her skin. "Are you going down to dinner?"

"Hello Pansy," Elina replied in a perfectly flat tone of voice. "I think I should, as it's dinner time and I'm hungry."

Pansy laughed as if she'd just heard something incredibly funny. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" she said as soon as she'd finished.

"I do, but that probably won't stop you," Elina kept her eyes straight ahead and didn't stop walking.

"Well, Blaise and I were talking to each other, and we've decided that since Draco is so fond of you, we're going to let you into our little group."

Elina stopped still and Pansy bumped into her from behind. "Why? Why are you suddenly letting me in? I thought you hated people connected with Hermione Granger. I'm still friends with her too, you know." She turned slowly and looked Pansy straight in the eye as she said this.

"Well, first of all, I thought I was the one who'd be asking the questions, but I'll answer yours first," Pansy replied. "We want to let you in because if Draco likes you, you can't be all that bad, even if you are friends with Granger."

Elina nodded. "Now what's your question?"

"How do you and Draco know one another?"

Elina had to force herself to stay calm. "You heard in Potions today. Draco and I met over the summer, on holiday."

Pansy breathed sharply. "And what about Granger? Why is he suddenly so happy to be in her company? You don't have anything to do with that, do you?"

Elina could feel herself becoming light-headed. She knew that if someone didn't come along and break up this conversation, she'd probably cave and blurt out everything.

"Well?"

Elina gazed at the other girl's expectant expression and was about to say something when quite suddenly she felt herself being pushed roughly from behind. Opening her eyes, she slowly rolled over and found herself looking into a pair of wide blue-green eyes.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" the young man asked as he grabbed her hand and gently hauled her up from the floor. "Sometimes I get so involved in what I'm doing that I forget to pay attention to my feet."

"No, it's all right," Elina told him weakly. "I'm pretty sure I'm not injured."

Nodding, but still looking grave he let her go. "Did I interrupt anything?" he asked, looking from Elina to Pansy.

Elina shook her head before Pansy could utter a word. "We were just on our way to dinner," she told him. "Have you eaten yet?"

The young man shook his head and held out his arm to Elina. "Would you care to join me?"

Elina nodded. "Certainly." She took his arm and looked over at Pansy. "If you're eating with Draco, please tell him that I'm sorry I won't be there, and if he wants, I'll see him tonight."

She then turned and let her escort lead her away, leaving Pansy standing alone outside the Great Hall, looking stunned.

A second later, Blaise appeared and joined her. "So," he asked with an air of impatience, "did she tell you anything?"

"No," Pansy shook her head, looking sour. "I have a feeling she was about to, but just at that point, some dumb prat ran up from behind and knocked the air out of her. Now they're going off to dinner and I've become her bloody social secretary if Draco wants to know where she's gone to."

Blaise gave a small hiss of displeasure. "We'll have to try again some other time. But we'll get it out of her. There's something going on that we deserve to know about."

"And something that the girl definitely knows. When I asked her about Draco and Granger, she looked as if she was going to faint or something. Wait a minute, I just got the most awful idea," Pansy's eyes narrowed into little slits. "What if she got planted here by Dumbledore to help instill that stupid house unity that he's always going on about?" she mused. "And what if he plans for Granger and Draco to be his first converts, so he's having her soften them up before he sets his plan into motion?"

She looked up at Blaise hopefully, but he was only frowning deeper. "Quit being so stupid," he growled. "Draco is way too smart to fall for something as obvious as that. Let's go eat. Maybe I'll think up something more credible over dinner."

And as Pansy pouted, he led her into the Great Hall, and they both took their seats next to Draco at the Slytherin table, Pansy informing Draco immediately about Elina's whereabouts.

* * *

As soon as Blaise and Pansy were involved in their dinner and no longer focused on him, Draco began to scan around the room for Elina and the guy Pansy had said she was with. 

It wasn't that he was jealous or anything and he wouldn't have even called it fatherly concern, but for some reason, the idea of Elina dating bothered him. It was probably because she was only here temporarily and would eventually be going home so he didn't want her getting too attached to anyone and getting her heart broken when she had to leave. All right, so maybe it _was_ fatherly concern, a feeling that he had to admit, was not entirely repulsive to him.

But it did mean that he would have to have a chat with Hermione later, and see what she thought about it. Damn, if Elina kept this sort of thing up, doing things that would make him have to keep consulting with Hermione, people were going to start to wonder.

Finally, he saw them. Elina looked incredibly happy and very much at ease, and the young man beside her-wait, young man? - Draco grimaced. When did he start thinking of people his own age in terms like that?

He shook his head, tearing his eyes away from them, and although it took a lot of effort, he didn't look at them again.

* * *

Midnight found Draco and Hermione waiting for Elina so that the three of them could have yet another secret meeting. She'd set up the time herself, but Elina was late, a good thirty minutes late. 

When he finally saw her, the first thing that Draco felt like doing was jumping up from his chair and berating her. Hermione saw his face and quickly put a restraining hand on his arm, shaking her head.

When Elina reached them, she saw the look on his face and the smile immediately left hers. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"We want to know about that guy you were with at dinner," Draco told her, standing up and trying to stare her down.

"Him?" Elina shrugged. "He rescued me from Pansy, and then asked me if I wanted to go to dinner, so I said yes. What's so bad about that?"

"What's so bad is-"

"Wait a minute," Hermione interrupted. "What do you mean by he 'rescued you from Pansy'?"

"Oh, that." Elina exhaled and flopped into a chair. "I think she might suspect something. She asked me today if I had anything to do with the fact that you two are spending so much time together. I was so scared that I almost told her the truth. In fact, I think I would have if my knight in shining armor hadn't hit me from behind and knocked the wind out of me."

This announcement made Draco and Hermione look at one another in dismay. "I thought Dumbledore brought her here so that we'd be encouraged to have her for real," he said as if Elina was no longer there. "But now my thoughts are beginning to go in the other direction." Hermione pursed her lips and said nothing.

"Don't you understand?" Draco asked, looking at Elina, whose lips were beginning to tremble. "So far, all the two of us have done is clean up after you. We aren't your parents yet, but you're making us act like we are, and that cannot happen if you don't want your cover to be blown. I understand that you miss where you come from, but unfortunately, you cannot just recreate it here. Now, I'm going to go to bed, and under no circumstances should the three of us ever have to meet like this again. Am I clear?"

Elina's eyes were full of tears and as Draco stalked off, she began to cry. "He's right you know," she sobbed. "I really haven't done a good job of adjusting and I'm so sorry about that. From now on, I'll try harder, honest I will."

Hermione nodded. "It's all right. Draco didn't mean to be so bad-tempered. He's probably just tired. Do you want me to walk you back to your dormitory?"

Elina shook her head. "If I have to act like you aren't my mother, I should probably try and get there myself."

Hermione nodded and wished Elina good night, then went to catch up with Draco.

"What the hell was that about? Do you realize that you made her cry?" Hermione asked, smacking him soundly upside the head.

"It was probably for the best," Draco muttered, rubbing his head. "If she hates us, she won't depend on us."

"Oh, you're just upset because she found herself a boyfriend and that bothers you."

"And why doesn't it bother you?" he asked.

"Because," Hermione said simply, "I brought him here to help her adjust. After today, she probably won't need us at all."

Draco stopped rubbing his head. "You mean-"

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "That's her boyfriend from back home. I told them to pretend that the two of them were just meeting."

Draco stared. "You really are unbelievable, you know that, right?"


	19. Suspicions and A Confession

Leaving a stunned Draco behind, Hermione headed to Gryffindor Tower, being careful not to make much noise, lest she bring on the presence of Filch and/or Mrs. Norris for being out of bed after hours.

After awakening the Fat Lady, who let her in only reluctantly, Hermione stepped into a dark common room and made her way toward the stairwell to go up to the dormitories. However, due to a lack of visibility, she stubbed her toe on the edge of a table and went falling to the floor with a yell and a loud crash.

Not a minute later, she heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Harry's whisper "Lumos." The room was suddenly illuminated, and she looked up just in time to see Ron and Harry standing over her, looking smug.

"And just where have you been?" Ron asked. "I never thought of you as one to sneak around the castle after hours."

"It's none of your business where I've been, is it?" she replied, getting to her feet and dusting herself off. "If you don't mind, it's late, and I would really like to get to bed."

At that moment, Harry ran to the staircase and stood in front of it, blocking Hermione's way. "Not until you tell us where you were."

Hermione stared at him, nonplussed. "Do you really think that you just standing there in front of the stairwell is going to stop me from getting up to my bed?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but I'm pretty sure that keeping a secret from your two best friends is going to keep you from sleeping, so you might as well just tell us what's going on now, and then go to bed with a clean conscience."

Hermione groaned. "Dumbledore said that I'm not supposed to tell you because if I do, you will most likely get in a snit, and it will wreck everything. So can we please just let it go, and let me go to bed so I can get some sleep? I'm really, really tired!"

"You were out late because of something to do with Dumbledore?" Ron was now looking at her with rapt attention, and he and Harry were sitting on the bottom step of the stairwell, seeing that she was just about to cave. Harry knew that he just had to say one more thing.

"Come on Hermione, I told you about the history of Voldemort when Dumbledore told me I couldn't tell anyone. Now can't you return the favor?"

Hermione sighed, seeing that the two of them weren't going to budge until she told them something. "All right, I'll talk. But how long have you two suspected?"

"Suspected?" Ron asked, looking intrigued. "We've just noticed that you've been distracted a lot when we need homework help, and tonight you weren't in the dormitory, so we wondered where you were. What is there that would require suspecting? Does it have anything to do with the new girl?"

"Actually yes," Hermione nodded, sitting down next to them. "But the two of you have to promise that you won't tell anyone. If Pansy and Blaise get wind of this, things could get disastrous. Do you promise not to tell a soul?"

Harry and Ron nodded vigorously, now looking very eager.

"All right," Hermione began. "Do you remember me telling you at the Sorting about how Draco and I met the child we were going to have over the summer?"

The eyes didn't move from her face, but the two watching her nodded.

"Well, the new girl is her. Elina is the daughter Draco and I are going to have. Dumbledore brought her here so that she would actually have a chance of being born because Draco and I would remember how in love we were once or however you want to say it."

"And where were you tonight?" Ron asked, looking extremely pale, almost ill.

"Elina is having trouble adjusting to a reality where Draco and I don't get along with one another," she explained, ignoring Ron's wince every time she called Malfoy by his real name. "So he and I met up with her to discuss how we can help. Also, Draco was a bit upset by the fact that she has a boyfriend now. Watching him being all fatherly is actually quite adorable."

Harry and Ron looked at one another. "Harry, did Hermione just use the word 'adorable' in reference to Draco Malfoy?"

Harry nodded. "I believe she did. But maybe it's because she's tired, and we should let her get to sleep. Then she'll explain it to us again in more believable terms. In fact, maybe she just made up this whole crazy story so we'll stop hounding her and let her go to bed."

With that, the two of them stood up from the stairwell and led a disbelieving Hermione up to the girls' dormitory and bidding her goodnight at the door.

_It's just as well that they don't believe me_, Hermione thought to herself as she got under her covers and shut her eyes. That way she wouldn't have to worry about the story getting around to people it shouldn't.

* * *

The first thing that met Hermione's eyes when she came down from her bed after waking was the sight of Ron and Harry waiting to escort her down to breakfast.

"You two really don't need to do this," she protested. "I am perfectly capable of walking down to breakfast on my own."

"Ahh, but we want to hear the _real_ reason you were out late last night, and we figured that breakfast would be the perfect time for you to tell us," Ron replied.

"I already told you," Hermione said with exasperation, her voice rising to a fevered pitch, "Elina is Draco's and my daughter from the future, and she's here to remind me to get pregnant with her now. Do you understand? That _is_ the real story!"

At that moment, Ron and Harry, who'd had their hands on both her shoulders, dropped them as if Hermione was on fire. They then began to scratch themselves like crazy, and a look at their arms revealed patches of orange mossy growth that was its source.

"What is this?" Ron asked through gritted teeth. Underneath the growth, the skin was red and raw and beginning to peel.

"Looks like some sort of spell," Hermione replied, eyeing it critically. "Go up to the hospital wing. I can go to breakfast by myself."

As soon as Harry and Ron were out of sight, Hermione continued on her way but stopped at a sound behind her. She turned around and started at the sight of Draco advancing on her and looking very angry.

"How could you," he asked in a voice of deadly menace, advancing on her like a jungle cat about to pounce. "How could you tell them? Worse then that, you not only told them, but shouted it out for the whole hall to hear! Pansy could have been standing right next to you and gotten exactly what she's wanted since the second Elina showed up."

Hermione's eyes widened and darted around as if Pansy were going to jump out any moment.

"Don't worry," Draco said his voice hard when he realized what she was doing. "Pansy's not here. She's down at breakfast already."

Hermione brought her gaze slowly back to Draco's face. "I didn't mean to tell them. They suspected and were waiting up for me when I got back to the dormitory last night, and wouldn't let me go to sleep until I told them something."

"So why didn't you make something up?" Draco said through his teeth, his hands twitching with anger. "They didn't know anything. You could have told them whatever, and they would have accepted it as truth."

"They still don't believe it," Hermione replied quickly, feeling worse by the minute. "They still think I made the whole thing up. They wanted me to tell them the 'real story' at breakfast. I was planning to make something up, I swear."

"Fine," Draco replied, eyes cold. "Do that. I don't want to have to start watching you, too."


	20. Damage Control

Draco watched as Hermione walked away, sighing and running his fingers through his hair. "I swear she's going to be the death of somebody," he muttered under his breath.

At that moment, a touch on his shoulder made him start. He turned around and saw that it was Elina with her boyfriend. She was smiling, but her eyes held curiosity as she watched him.

"Hello, Draco," she greeted him. "I trust you had a pleasant evening after we parted?"

Draco nodded. "It was good enough I suppose. Do you want to introduce me to your friend?" he asked her in a tone that he hoped didn't make him sound like a hostile, overprotective father.

Elina looked up at the guy she'd brought with her. "Draco, this is Galen Crewe. He's from back home."

"Ahh, so this is the boyfriend that Hermione worked so hard to get here." Despite the fact that he hadn't wanted to, Draco found himself circling Galen like an over-enthusiastic vulture.

"Yes, it is. Are you all right, Draco?" Elina was now watching him as if there was something askew with his sanity, and he didn't entirely blame her. "I think you've seen him from every angle, so you can stand still now and talk, can't you?"

"Yes, of course." Draco forced himself to stop and plant his feet firmly on the floor. Galen was watching him with apprehension.

"Elina," he asked hesitantly, "does he always act like this?"

Elina shook her head. "No, not normally." She looked around as Hermione had done and then motioned for Galen to come closer. "But remember, he _is _my father after all. Can you blame him for being a bit nervous? He's never met you here." She whispered this practically into Galen's neck since he was so much taller then she was.

"Right, I keep forgetting that part." He nodded, then strode over to Draco. "Trust me; we get along well back home."

"You really do," Elina agreed. "Galen's father is a friend of yours from work."

At that, Draco looked over Galen again, this time with a more positive frame of mind.

"Just for my own purposes of clarification, you do mean I know Galen's father in the future for sure."

Elina rolled her eyes. "Duh, Draco. You wouldn't just let me date some guy I met out of nowhere."

Draco smirked a little. "That's good to know. Sorry if I seem a bit uptight, but that is because Hermione has already done something to practically mess up everything and has absolutely nothing to do with the two of you." He then stopped and looked at Elina. "I'm sorry I told you that. I know how much Hermione and I not getting along upsets you."

Elina locked eyes with him. "I've come to terms with that. What happened?"

"Well, apparently when Hermione got to the dormitory last night, Potter and Weasel seized upon her and made her tell them why she was out of bed so late last night before she could get to sleep."

Both Elina's and Galen's eyes widened. "Does that mean they know?" Elina asked.

"Does that mean we have to leave?" Galen was looking just as panicked.

Draco shook his head. "She told them, but they don't believe her. Now they're at the hospital wing recovering from a spell I put on them, but I have a feeling that as soon as they get out, they'll want the 'truth.'

There was a collective sigh of relief from the other two.

Finally, Elina asked "should we be helping her figure out what the truth is, or are the two of you not speaking?"

"Oh, no. We're still speaking. I'm afraid the issue lies with me this time."

Elina gave him a satisfied smile. "Maybe you can find her and help her figure out a good story."

Draco nodded. "I'll go do that. Have the two of you eaten already?"

Elina nodded. "Yes, just finished. We were on our way to the library to do some studying."

Draco bade the pair goodbye and headed to the Hall, where he found Hermione sitting in a chair at a nearly vacant part of the Gryffindor table.

"Would you care to talk?" he asked her.

"Not unless you apologize first," she replied. "I can't believe you had the nerve to accuse me of putting Elina's life in jeopardy. You know I would never do that!"

"Fine," Draco sighed. "I apologize for jumping to conclusions."

"Thank you." Hermione locked eyes with him. "But I can't say I blame you entirely for being angry at me for what I told Ron and Harry. I'm sorry I wasn't more careful about shouting things out this morning. Now, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well," Draco said once the two of them had pulled two chairs into an isolated, completely neutral corner, "I met Elina's boyfriend, and he seems very nice. According to the two of them, Galen's father is a friend of mine from work. Apparently the two of them met and things things progressed from there. Also, Elina wondered if you wanted help thinking of a story to tell Potter and Weasley."

Hermione shook her head. "I think I have that under control." Then she stopped. "I suppose you want to hear a bit of what I plan to tell them?"

Draco nodded. "That would be nice."

"All right. I was planning on saying that she was actually the daughter of some friends, you know. Like the people who lived in the house next door to Alstere, and we spent so much time with our keepers, we were able to establish a bond."

"It's not all that original, but it works." Draco stood up. "Good luck. They should be out of the hospital wing pretty soon."

Hermione nodded. "Thank you. I find it interesting though that you wanted to meet like this. I distinctly remember you telling Elina that you couldn't go around bailing her out all the time, and that from yesterday on, you would no longer act like her father."

"Well for starters, I wasn't bailing her out, I was seeing if I needed to bail you out. And second, I was just a bit put off last night because it was so late."

Hermione smiled. "Is someone a bit uncomfortable with admitting they enjoy being fatherly? I told Ron and Harry that it makes you look adorable."

Draco's eyes widened. "No, for the love of all that is pure and good please tell me you didn't use the word adorable to describe me to Potter and Weasel."

Hermione smiled. "I just told you I did. Have a good day, Draco."

Draco turned away, grumbling under his breath. "Could this day get any more awkward?"

At that moment, Elina came running up to him looking rapturous. "Draco! You'll never guess what just happened! I was in Professor Dumbledore's office and he had a visitor. It was Grandfather Lucius! You and Hermione never let me meet him, but when I saw him a few minutes ago, it seemed like he was going to be here for a very long time. I'm going to go and say hello!" and she ran away excitedly.

Draco ran after her. "You know Elina, there is a reason why Hermione and I never allow you to meet my father, and I have a feeling that if you strode up to him and told him who your mother was you'd soon find out that reason."

Elina waved that aside. "Oh, he can't be that bad." And she started walking again, leaving Draco trailing in her wake and wishing desperately for Hermione so he wouldn't have to do this particular bit of damage control on his own.

* * *

"…So Elina isn't really your daughter with Malfoy from the future?" Ron asked, looking somewhat deflated. 

"No," Hermione shook her head. "I just told you that because everything else was so odd and exciting that the real story about Elina was a bit dull. I was trying to spice it up a little. And speaking of Malfoy, the two of you are taking my forced association with him very well. It's almost like you don't hate him anymore."

Ron began to choke on a bit of sausage and Harry whacked him hard on the back. "We still hate him," he said. "It's just that this is such a weird circumstance that we don't really know quite what to think of it."

Hermione nodded. "Thanks for clearing that up." And with that, she turned back to her breakfast plate and dug her fork into her eggs.


	21. The Imaginary Family Friend

As she was scraping the last bits of food off her breakfast plate, Hermione looked up and happened to see Draco running after a euphoric-looking Elina.

She put her spoon down, then told Harry and Ron she needed to leave for a moment to go see what was going on.

She caught up with them a little while later. "What's the matter?" she asked, looking at Draco's frazzled expression. "Why does it seem to me that we're going in the direction of Dumbledore's office? Did Elina get in trouble?" Draco's head turned and his eyes met Hermione's with a pained expression.

"You'll see when we get there," he answered heavily. "But just a hint: Elina saw someone in Dumbledore's office she wants to meet, so she has a little family reunion in mind."

Hermione frowned. "But what family would be in Dumbledore's office? And more importantly, what family member would she have that we wouldn't let her meet…" her voice suddenly trailed off and she gasped. "Is it your father?" she asked. "Are we trying to stop Elina from revealing herself to your father and you having to explain anything she tells him?"

Draco nodded. "I must be good at giving hints if you got it that quickly," he told her glumly. "Do you have any ideas about how to stop this ensuing disaster?"

Hermione turned away from him and watched Elina as she quickened her pace ahead of them. Then she called out to her. "Elina Ophelia, come here a minute!"

Elina froze and turned, looking surprised. "How do you know my middle name?" she asked as she walked back over to Draco and Hermione.

Hermione shrugged. "I like those names, so it just made sense to me that is what we named you. Now, what is going on here?"

Elina shrugged. "I was in Dumbledore's office and I saw him talking to Grandfather Lucius. I've never met Grandfather Lucius before because for some reason the two of you won't let me. I thought now might be a good time to say hello. What's the matter, Hermione?"

As Elina's speech had progressed, Hermione had felt her jaw dropping down further and further, and now she realized that it was practically touching the floor, and that she must look very odd. She quickly closed her mouth and looked at Elina severely. "I really don't think that would be a good idea. He's no different now then he is in your time."

"And how is he?" Elina asked curiously.

"He doesn't like me, that's for sure." Hermione told her. "Actually, he doesn't like muggles or muggle-borns at all. And if you strolled up to him and told him that his son married me and then we had you, that would make him really angry."

Elina's eyes widened. "Are you saying you won't let me meet him because he _hates_ me?"

Hermione nodded. "I'm sorry, but that's the truth. An ironic one, because before we came back here and I was pregnant with you in this other world where Draco and I were both pure-bloods, he and your grandmother Narcissa couldn't wait for you to come."

Elina's eyes lit up. "Really?" she asked.

"Really." Hermione affirmed. "As soon as your grandmother found out you were coming, she stuck me in a room at their house and wouldn't let me leave so she could watch me like a hawk and cater to my every whim until you were born."

"Wow." Elina blinked. "That sounds pretty good. Why did you leave this other world?"

"Because when we were there, I was a different person, Elina. And I didn't like myself. I wanted to be back here where all my friends are, and where I have my head on straight."

The response made Elina look somewhat dejected. "You left a world where you were rich and had everything you could want just to maintain your moral integrity?"

"Yes," Hermione told her firmly. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with that."

Draco watched this exchange with amusement, then winked at Elina. "I was wondering when you'd prove that you were my child."

Elina shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Did I just do that?" she asked curiously."

"Yes," Draco told her, looking wicked. Hermione nodded in agreement. "Most Slytherins have no moral integrity, and when they get some, they have no wish to keep it. That's probably why Draco wanted to stay in the first place," she said dryly."

Draco frowned. "Thank you so much."

Hermione shrugged. "I'm just telling it like it is. And besides, I said _most _Slytherins, not all."

"That may be, but then you went and inserted me into your next sentence as another example to prove your point."

They kept going on like this for quite some time, and eventually Elina realized that the two of them were no longer paying attention to her. She quietly snuck away and got herself to Dumbledore's office. She knocked on the door, and said in a voice loud enough to carry "Professor Dumbledore, it's me, Elina! I'm sorry to bother you, but I have some questions concerning our arrangement!"

She then stepped back and heard a voice from inside say "excuse me, Lucius. I need to go see to matters on the other side of the door."

A moment later, the door was open. Dumbledore looked at Elina for a moment before bidding her come in.

He motioned for her to sit in a chair near the one that Lucius occupied, and asked her what the problem was. While she explained it, she tried really hard not to stare at the man who occupied the other chair.

"Well, I don't know how this could have happened, but I think Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson must suspect something. They keep following me around and asking me how I know Draco and Hermione. And Pansy keeps acting way too nice to me. It seems like she believes that if she's nice enough to me, I'll tell her exactly what she wants to hear."

"And are you aware that it is perfectly reasonable of her to wonder why your parents would be spending so much time together here?"

Elina nodded. "Yes, and I've been trying really hard not to need them so much, but things are so different here, I've been having adjustment problems."

She stopped when she realized that Dumbledore was no longer looking at her, but at her grandfather. "Is something the matter, Lucius?" She turned and realized that her grandfather had been staring at her. He averted his eyes hastily when Dumbledore addressed him.

"No, Dumbledore. Nothing is wrong. Now if the girl is finished, may we get on with our conversation?" His voice was steely and sharp, like his eyes and it made Elina wince. But before Dumbledore responded, he stood up and waved his hand. The door then opened to reveal Draco on the other side.

"May I help you, Draco?" Dumbledore asked pleasantly.

"Sir, I'm looking for Elina, have you…" his voice trailed off as he noticed her in the chair. "There you are! Would you mind coming back with me?"

"Elina came here because she had questions about our arrangement, Draco. She was telling me that Miss Parkinson and Mr. Zabini are beginning to suspect something."

"Well, they have said things over the last couple of days, but we can handle them. It's only if she meets my…" he stopped.

At this, Lucius stood up and locked eyes with his son. "Only if she meets who, Draco? Who is this girl? She looks very familiar to me."

Elina stood up and said very calmly "Evie Gossamer."

"What?" Draco and Lucius both turned to her at the same time.

"My name," she said very clearly, "is Evelyn Gossamer."

Lucius paused a moment. "But Draco called you Elina when he came in."

Elina locked eyes with him. "That's just a nickname. I honestly am Evelyn Gossamer."

Draco looked at her, clueless, but Lucius nodded and looked at her approvingly. "No wonder you look so familiar. Narcissa mentioned you would be at Hogwarts this year. She also said that you were to stay with us during holidays."

"Really?" Elina asked, perking up. "My parents must have forgotten to mention that. What a pleasant surprise!"

She then turned to Dumbledore. "I think I'll be all right, sir. I have a class to be getting to now."

Draco looked at her. "I think it's the same one I'm going to. Would you like me to escort you?"

"Please." Elina nodded, and Draco preceded her out the door of the office and into the hallway. As soon as they were clear of the door, Draco asked the question.

"What the hell were you talking about back there? Did you just come up with that out of thin air, or is this part of the plan?"

"Oh, don't worry," Elina assured him. "It's part of the plan. I have to be your parents' good graces before the two of you get up the guts to get together."

"Who's Evie Gossamer?"

"The daughter of a friend of the family. She doesn't really exist, but I made your parents think she does. That's all I can tell you now, but you'll know more later, I promise."

All Draco could do was nod as Elina waved goodbye to him. He watched her head down the hall, and then ran to tell Hermione about this latest development with Elina and the plan to get the two of them together.


	22. Tough Love

"She said _what?_" Hermione looked at Draco with wide eyes, her voice full of incredulity. "Are you telling me that she was in Dumbledore's office with your father and she managed to get out of there alive by telling him that she was an old family friend? Was that it?"

Draco shook his head. "No, she said she was the _daughter_ of an old family friend. Try to get it straight, otherwise you'll be no good to anybody."

Hermione rolled her eyes, then gazed over her shoulder at Ron and Harry who were both shuffling from foot to foot with their eyes on the ceiling rather then looking at her or Draco. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't know!" Draco cried out. "Go talk her out of it! She's your child after all!" taking a deep breath he ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm going to class." Hermione nodded, but before he could walk away, she cleared her throat.

"She's not just my child Malfoy. She's yours too, don't forget that. And be careful what you shout out in the hallways. Someone could hear you and we'd all be in trouble." Her voice was quiet and firm. After she finished speaking, she picked up her bag of schoolbooks and she, Ron and Harry left a very unhappy Draco Malfoy standing alone next to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. After a few moments, he went off to Potions, seething with anger.

* * *

"Did you see the look on his face?" Ron asked, grinning widely, his voice full of glee. He then looked at Hermione. "Glad to see you're still able to call him Malfoy with the same hatred that all the rest of us do. The way you've been acting ever since you got back made me think that you were too far gone to do that anymore."

Hermione gave him a small smile and shook her head. "No, I'm not. It's just that he's been so civil before now. And with all that happened last summer I just didn't feel right being so cold to him."

"Is that thought process done and over with now?" Harry asked hopefully.

She nodded grimly. "Of course it is. I was only being nice to him for Elina's sake, but now that she's adjusted to being here, things can go back to being the way they were before."

At that moment, Hermione spied Galen Crewe standing alone in the hallway, looking over his shoulder. "Galen!" she called out, running towards him. "Are you looking for Elina?"

He looked up, grinned, and waved. "Yeah, I am. Do you know where she is? She told me there were some things she needed to do this morning and I haven't seen her since. Have you?" His eyes then traveled curiously to her companions.

Hermione watched him for a moment, then looked at Ron and Harry. "Galen, these are friends of mine, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. And yes I do know where Elina is. Draco found her in the Headmaster's office plotting something ridiculous so that he and I would get together."

Galen nodded, but his eyes were still on Ron and Harry. "Are you saying that this is _the_ Harry Potter and _the_ Ron Weasley?"

Ron's eyes widened. Harry nodded. "Yes, we are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."

Galen's face broke out into a wide grin. "My God, I don't believe this! It's an honor to meet you both, it really is!"

Just as Ron was about to open his mouth to ask what he'd done that was worthy of Galen's admiration, Elina appeared quite suddenly and bade the three she hadn't seen yet that day a cheery good morning.

"Hello everyone! Galen, how are you?"

"Fine," he told her, his eyes still locked on Ron and Harry. When Elina saw what he was looking at, she just rolled her eyes and rapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"They're just people you know. Yes Harry saved the magical world from being overtaken by the ultimate forces of evil, and yes Ron is one of the greatest Quidditch players of all time, but now they're at school! And I bet that in private they're as annoying as anyone. Is that right, Hermione?"

Hermione eyed Ron and Harry for a moment before nodding. "I'd say so, at least on a few occasions."

"See?" Elina turned on Galen triumphantly. "I told you so."

Galen sighed, his expression stating quite clearly that the two of them had had this argument many times before and that it was more of a game then an actual fight.

"All right, you win. Now, let's go plot what you're going to do once you get to the Manor."

"Wait a minute, stop!" Hermione cried. "What in the world is he talking about, Elina Ophelia? Draco was in a fit about that this morning too."

"He was?" Elina frowned. "He seemed okay with it when he found me in Dumbledore's office."

Hermione mirrored her look. "Do you know that for certain, or do you just think that because it would be convenient for you?"

Elina shrugged. "I don't know. But I don't see what's so wrong about doing this either. When I brought up the idea in front of Grandfather Lucius he seemed okay with it, and he said that I was to stay with him and Grandmother Narcissa."

Hermione's bag of schoolbooks fell to the floor with a loud crash, but she barely noticed. "How in the world did you make him okay with it?"

She narrowed her eyes as Elina began to fidget and refused to keep her own eyes on Hermione's face. "You didn't put a spell on them, did you?"

Elina stopped moving and focused her eyes straight ahead. "I might have put just a little one on them, but it's nothing dangerous, or so complicated that I can't remove it, I promise!"

Hermione let out a groan of frustration and grabbed Elina by the arm. "I don't believe this! What made you think that it was okay to put a spell on your grandparents?"

"I did it because I had to Hermione! If I didn't then I would never get into their good graces, the two of you will never get together, and then I'll never be born." Elina's voice was rising and hysterical. Galen ran after Hermione, watching her nervously.

"Nothing bad happens because of this, I promise, Hermione," he said finally.

Hermione looked at him. "Thank you for trying to reassure me, Galen. But I still think that this is a bad idea. Elina, give me your wand. I don't want you doing any more magic."

"But…"

"No, none of that. By the end of the day I want all your books in my dormitory where I can see them. And I am going to talk with Draco so that there is no chance whatsoever of you going anywhere near Malfoy Manor. Draco is in class right now, but let me assure you that he feels the same way. You'll get no sympathy from him. This is for your own good."

Elina was in tears by the end of the pronouncement, but she held the wand out anyway, and Hermione took it and pocketed it. After a few moments of awkward silence, Hermione, Ron and Harry went on their way to charms while Galen took Elina to calm down in the Ravenclaw common room.

"If not by magic, how will your parents get together?" He asked her.

"I don't know," Elina sniffled, her head buried in her hands and her entire upper torso hanging over the arm of a red stuffed couch. "I don't know."


	23. The Loophole

Galen looked at her, aghast. "How could you not know how to get out of this?" he asked. "You always go on and on about how your parents told you every detail about how this little foray into the past was going to pan out. You can't be drawing a blank now."

Elina lifted her eyes from the arm of the sofa. "I might have exaggerated a bit," she admitted. "Mum's so cautious about preserving time as it is that there's no way she'd tell me everything."

"Wonderful." Galen let out a breath and collapsed next to her on the sofa. "So is it safe to say that no matter what we do now, there's a risk that we'll change history?"

Elina nodded glumly. "It is safe to say that. We can't leave Hogwarts because Mum took my wand away and is going to take my books." Suddenly, her expression became crafty and her lips turned up in a mischievous grin. "But notice that she didn't tell me to take the spell off Grandmother Narcissa and Grandfather Lucius. The plan can still go on. Next time he stops by, I'll just tell Grandfather Lucius I'm ready to come for the visit."

"What about your parents?"

Elina shrugged. "A few weeks without me will be good for them. It will let them act like teenagers again instead of having to constantly act like my parents. And we can't leave them a note, because then, they'll only try and stop us."

She then stood up and strode from the common room. Galen watched her go, shaking his head in disbelief at Elina's conviction that this plan of hers would work out.

Elina had Transfiguration with Hermione that day and found it was incredibly difficult to meet her eyes without feeling like she'd give something away. "So," Hermione said in cheerful tone as the two of them entered the Transfiguration classroom, "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for being so short with you this morning. I know that you're a mature, responsible young lady, but as your mother, it's my responsibility to make sure you don't hurt yourself or anyone else. You do understand, don't you?"

Elina nodded. "Yes, I understand. But could you do me a favor? Stop acting so much like my mother and act more like yourself, all right? Listen to yourself talk! You're still a teenager here. And I have one more question: Does this new sense of my responsibility and maturity mean that I can keep my magic books and have my wand back?"

Hermione stopped for a moment. "No, it doesn't. I'll keep your books for a week, and you'll get them for classroom purposes only. Same thing for your wand."

"All right, but you have to admire me for trying." Hermione gave her a small grin and the two of them entered the classroom and sat next to each other, waiting for Professor McGonagall to show up. After that occurred, they didn't talk for the rest of the day, and Elina didn't see Draco at all, which she considered a good omen; it might be easy to hide her plots from Hermione, but she had a feeling that Draco could read her like a book, and if that was the case, he would be a considerable difficulty.

That night, she made sure to give her books to Hermione before she went to bed, and when she got back to the dormitory afterward, she got up in bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her sleep was sound and untroubled, except for one strange dream where she found herself in a long hallway, with several mirrors on either side. As she walked down the corridor, she looked at her reflections. Every once in awhile, the expression of the girl in the mirror changed. In the first couple of mirrors, she looked indecisive and worried. She was wearing a strange robe in these first reflections too. One sleeve, the right, as well as the right side of the robe, was red, and the left sleeve was green. The rest of her robe was blue. As she walked further and further along, her robe became more and more green and her expression more mischievous until finally, when she opened the door at the end of the hall, she found herself looking into a grand bedroom. What she could see in the darkness was mostly green and the sheets and blankets on the canopy bed felt heavenly when she put her cheek against them.

Suddenly, she heard a sound. She looked up and saw a person standing in the doorway of the room, concealed by the darkness staring at her. "Hello Elina," they said in a taunting voice. "Welcome to Malfoy Manor." Before she could ask how they knew who she really was, however, she felt herself wake up.

* * *

As soon as her eyes were open, Elina sat up in bed and took several deep breaths. The dream was strange and very unnerving, it was true, but did it mean anything? And who was that person in the room with her? Did they symbolize someone who knew about her plan and would be at the Manor to give her away? The spell she'd put on her grandparents was a good one, but there was always the opportunity for something to go wrong.

Because things had to be perfect if she didn't want to get caught, Elina spent the next three months adjusting and readjusting the plan until she was absolutely positive nothing could go wrong, and that meant she had to leave much later then she'd originally planned. Of course there was the fact that Draco would be spending the holidays at the Manor as well, but she could handle that. She spent the last day of classes before Christmas holidays in the library researching really good transformation spells. If she was going to fool her own father into thinking she was a completely different person that would take a lot of work. And there was the other matter: if she wanted Hermione and Draco to act more like teenagers, she'd have to start treating them like her peers, which meant that she would need to stop thinking of them as Mum and Dad and start thinking of them as Hermione and Draco.

She looked up from the spellbook she was leafing through and sighed. That would take some work, but it could be done. It wasn't as if she'd ever called Draco or Hermione mum or dad in public. If she could conquer that, she could conquer her thought process as well. Another plus for complete transformation was that it would stop Draco from worrying. She realized that he'd been there when she'd introduced herself to Grandfather Lucius as "Evie Gossamer," and he seemed to think that she'd appear on the Manor's front step looking as she did now.

And then she remembered that her grandfather thought of her as Evie in her natural appearance. She'd have to compromise: look enough like herself that her grandparents would recognize her, yet be different enough that Draco would have no worries that she'd give herself away. As soon as she got her looks under control, she paraded in front of Galen. "What do you think of my new look?" she asked.

Galen looked at her. "I don't know. I never pictured you as a brunette," he admitted. "But short hair does look good on you. And how did you make your eyes a different color?" Elina pulled a small mirror out from under her bedcovers and surveyed herself. "I got the blue eyes from a muggle store," she told him, grinning as his eyes widened fractionally.

"They sell eyes at muggle stores? I have to see that!"

Elina shook her head. "No, silly. They don't sell eyes at muggle stores. They sell these things called contact lenses, for people who have bad eye sight but don't want to wear glasses. They're teeny lenses you stick right in your eye. You can get them in different colors. These contacts just happened to be blue."

Galen frowned. "But what will your grandparents say when they find out you're using muggle stuff?"

Elina put the hand mirror away. "They aren't going to find out. I'll just tell them it's the result of potion experimentation or something."

* * *

The next day, Elina and Draco waited for Lucius outside the school. Draco did a double-take when he saw Elina for the first time in a few weeks. "What did you do to yourself?" he asked her.

She grinned. "It's my disguise, so you don't have to worry about me giving anything away. Do you like it?"

Draco looked heavenward, then back at Elina. "It will do." Lucius's arrival prevented him from saying anything else.

The ride to the manor was pleasant, but there was one point where Lucius caught her gaze. Suddenly, a chill went through her as she looked into his gray eyes. The dream came flooding back to her. She'd have to be on her guard. It would take more then a disguise to fool whoever was waiting for her at the Manor.


	24. Necessary Measures

"So is she or isn't she?" Hermione had decided to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday, and already she was regretting it. Ron and Harry had been nagging her for the last week as to Elina's true identity. They'd been taking turns asking at least three times a day. This time it was Ron. Finally, with a frustrated groan, Hermione turned to him and let it out.

"She is, all right? Elina is my daughter, exactly what I told you when Malfoy and I showed up in the Great Hall during the Sorting."

Ron frowned. "But then, why did you tell us later that she was just some girl you met?" Hermione collapsed into a chair looking frustrated. "Malfoy was a bit concerned because at that point we thought Pansy and Blaise were on to us, and were going to tell everyone about Elina. Dumbledore told us to lay low and not tell a soul." Suddenly, she sat up. "You two, come with me."

"Where are we going?" Harry asked curiously. Hermione shook her head and said nothing, but the other two realized soon enough that she was leading them to Dumbledore's office. She knocked once, and when Dumbledore opened the door, she said quickly "Professor, may I speak to you a moment?" he looked at her, then at Ron and Harry over her shoulder. "Miss Granger, I suspected I'd be seeing you eventually. Come in."

The three of them walked into the office and took seats opposite him. "Now," he said once they were settled. "What is it that you wish to see me about?"

"I've told Ron and Harry the real truth about Elina even though you told Draco and me not to tell another soul," Hermione answered quietly. Dumbledore put his hands in front of him on the desk and gazed at her. "Why did you do this?" he asked curiously.

"We've never kept anything from each other," she replied reasonably. "When you were giving Harry insights into the Dark Lord's past, you let him tell us what he found out as long as he didn't tell anyone else. What makes this any different?" Dumbledore smiled at her. "Miss Granger, I knew from the moment that I told you to keep Elina a secret that you'd end up telling these two. And I want you to know that it's all right that you told them. The restriction was more for Mr. Malfoy then yourself. I knew that you wouldn't tell anyone anything that would put Elina in jeopardy."

Hermione sat back in the chair and took a deep breath, color slowly returning to her face. "Thank you so much, sir." Dumbledore nodded. "By the way," he asked, "how is Elina?"

Hermione stood up from her chair and pushed it forward.

"She's fine, I think. Better adjusted then before." She paused for a moment. "I haven't seen her for a week, though. Do you think she stayed here for Christmas? She must have. She doesn't have anywhere else to go."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Then Galen Crewe entered the room looking panic-stricken. "If you're looking for Elina, she's gone to the Manor," he told them all. Hermione's eyes widened. "Why did she do that? I told her she wasn't allowed to."

Ron cracked a smile. "First and most obvious rule of parenting, Hermione: just because you tell your kids to do something doesn't mean they're going to do it." Hermione glared at him. "I'm going to get her back, and you're coming with me."

"What? Go to Malfoy's house? Have you gone completely mental, Hermione?" Ron's eyes were wide and he was shaking his head rapidly. Hermione pursed her lips, her expression stony. "No, I'm not kidding. Something bad could happen to her there."

"If I may interrupt for a moment, there is a matter of urgency as far as Elina is concerned," Dumbledore broke in. "The spell that brought her here only lasts for so long, and if you may recall, she wasn't here for social purposes."

"I know that," Hermione said quickly. "You brought her here so that Draco and I would see her and fall in love with each other." Ignoring Harry and Ron's grimaces, she continued. "But I'm afraid that hasn't happened yet. We're capable of behaving like her parents and cooperating for her sake, but there's been nothing beyond that."

Dumbledore locked eyes with her. "I'm sorry to hear that, but the spell that brought Elina to you is due to expire in three days. After that, you and Draco are on your own if you want her to be born at all. And one more thing: if she isn't, then a major change of history will occur, and I know how you feel about that, Miss Granger."

After a long, stunned silence, Hermione spoke. "What can I do so that her coming won't be in vain?" Dumbledore gave her a small smile. "I think you know what you have to do, don't you?" Hermione nodded, bid him, Harry, Ron and Galen goodbye and prepared herself to go and invade Malfoy Manor.

* * *

Elina was wandering around the hallways of the Manor. Draco had been keeping to himself ever since they'd arrived here. She'd been given a very grand bedroom, surprisingly feminine in its décor and thankfully nothing like the horror bedroom of her nightmare. She looked out a lone window and saw that it was beginning to get dark, but even so, she kept on exploring. After a few more moments, she came upon a locked door, which was quite solid, despite the lock's ancient appearance. She tried and tried to open it, and just when she was about to give up, a gust of wind suddenly blew through the hall and the door opened of its own accord.

Curious, she stepped inside the room. It was completely dark, but she made her way to the bed. She could just barely tell that the sheets were green, and that the bed itself was a large canopy. She kicked up dust with every step she took, and the room smelled quite musty, as if it hadn't been used for years. She looked up, and for a reason she couldn't explain, a picture on the wall came into focus. It was an old photograph that had been enlarged. The man and woman in the picture looked a lot like Draco and Hermione, but the photograph was in black and white and seemed to have been taken several years before her parents were born. Under the photograph were two names: Valerian and Ariella.

Elina tried to look away from the photograph, but it held her still. Then she heard the whispering: "Elina. Elina, let us out. We can help you." That was it. She screamed and ran out of the room, coughing as dust flew up under her frantic steps and got into her eyes.

Once she was clear of the room, the first person she ran into was Draco. "What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked. "Have you gone completely insane?" Elina shook her head. "I was exploring, and I went into this one room that had a photograph in it. Then the photograph started talking to me! It was terrifying!"

Draco was holding her at arms' length. "Where is this room?" he asked. "Could you show me the photo?" Just as Elina was about to lead Draco to the picture however, they heard the knock on the door. They went to answer it together, and were both surprised and displeased to see Hermione on the other side.

"Have you come to drag me back to Hogwarts?" Elina asked icily, followed by Draco's "how did you even get to the front door?" Hermione ignored these less then friendly greetings and let herself in.

"I have to admit," she said finally as she leisurely settled herself on a green stuffed couch, "my original intention was to bring you back to Hogwarts, but then Dumbledore explained something to me that drastically changed my thinking."

"And what was that?" Elina asked suspiciously. Hermione sighed. "Dumbledore told me that the spell that brought you here will only last for a few more days. If Draco and I aren't together by then, you disappear, and then your entire existence is up to Draco and me alone."

"What!" both Draco and Elina cried out at the same time. "Are you saying that if the two of you don't fall in love in three days, I'm going to disappear, and may or may not be born depending on your own personal whims? That is completely ridiculous!" the latter continued alone. Then, her eyes suddenly lit up. "The photograph told me that if I let out the subjects, they would help me. Do you think that they were talking about this?"

"What photograph?" Hermione asked.

"The one she was going to show me before you showed up," Draco said curtly. "She says it talked to her." Hermione tried hard not to look too enthusiastic. "If this is about me, then maybe I should come too."

"Do whatever you want, but stay away from me, and keep in mind that there's probably only about an hour until my parents get back from that concert they went to. I'd hate to see what would happen if they caught you around here." Draco told her curtly.

"I bet you would," Hermione muttered. But she followed Elina and Draco to the room, which Draco lit up with his wand. When she saw what the room looked like in light, Elina did her best not to shriek in terror. It was unquestionably the room of her nightmare.

Hermione and Draco spotted the photo immediately, and when they saw the subjects, they immediately began to groan. "Yes, the whispering was definitely about improving our present relations," Hermione told Elina. "Valerian and Ariella did it once, and I bet they think they can do it again."

At that moment, a gust of wind blew through the room, and the three of them watched as the photo began to change, and the two subjects were erased from it, and brought into the room as columns of magic that quickly formed into the two people. The two people looked from Draco to Hermione then over at Elina before the woman said "That's right, Hermione. And since we only have three days, we're going to have to hurry."

A/n- if you need a recap about Ariella and Valerian, go back and read chapters 40-43 of "A Strange Engagement."


	25. A Civilized Conversation

Elina said nothing as the other four led her away from the nightmare bedroom. When they were seated in the kitchen however, she felt the need to speak. "Hermione, Draco," she began, "who are these two and how in the world do they know who I am?"

Hermione looked up at her for a moment, then over at Ariella. "You know, that really is a fair question that I wouldn't mind hearing the answer to myself. It wasn't Dumbledore was it? He told us not to tell another soul, and I don't think he'd go against his own advice and tell someone."

Ariella shook her head. "It wasn't Dumbledore. Valerian cleared his throat and began to speak.

" It's actually quite simple, really."

"What?" Hermione asked again.

"We have picture frames at Elina's school," Valerian explained. "The school is contained within Alstere house, which I left for the first headmaster in my will. We were old friends, you see and I always admired his desire to create a school that's less sectional then Hogwarts."

Hermione looked at him, impressed and stunned. "This is really weird. First, you're a Malfoy who willingly marries a Gryffindor, then you become a philanthropist, pushing for the mixing of pureblood and muggleborn wizards? That is so weird. And so admirable. Ariella must've had an effect on you." She gave Draco a look. "Pay attention to him," she said, nodding towards Valerian. "You could really learn a lot from him about how to be more then the substandard shell of a person that you are now." She smiled at him sweetly.

He scoffed and said nothing in response to her comment. Instead, he looked at Ariella, who was frowning slightly. "You see what I have to put up with now? And she calls _me_ a substandard shell of a person. You know, she hasn't said one nice word to me since I don't know when."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "You've done nothing to warrant any compliments, that's why I haven't mentioned anything. Besides, wasn't it you who expressed a keen desire to have things back the way they were? And the second they get that way, you start whining and complaining about how no one appreciates you and everyone treats you like dirt. It's madness, that's what it is."

Elina let out a small growl. "Can we please remember why we're here? If the two of you don't suck it up and fall in love with each other in three days, I'm going to disappear, and from the state of this, you're never gonna see me again. Now can the two of you grow up enough so that we can have two minutes of civilized conversation?"

"I will if he will," replied Hermione, glancing moodily at Draco from her spot across the table.

"All right, fine. But let me tell you that I won't like it." he said.

"See, now was that so hard?" Elina grinned. Ariella and Valerian gave her looks of approval.

Elina smiled back in thanks, but then took on a more businesslike manner. "Now that that's settled, where were we?"

"We were discussing how Ariella and I know who you are," Valerian supplied quickly. "As I was saying, I admired the first headmaster of Elina's school for his desire to create an educational environment that is more open and less sectional. Naturally I got my picture put up in the front entryway as the school's benefactor once it opened, along with Ariella, since we both owned the house."

Elina's eyes widened. "The picture of the old guy in the front hall is _you_? You look so different!" then, realizing what she had just said, she blushed. "Please don't take that the wrong way. So you're Valerian and that's Ariella, but what do the two of you have to do with Draco and Hermione?"

Ariella allowed herself a small smile. "Last summer, your parents had to do some work for Dumbledore," she told Elina. "But they were pretty much acting the way they are right now. So Dumbledore summoned us to make them cooperate with each other."

"See Elina, truth be told, I'm technically not muggle-born," Hermione broke in before Ariella could say anymore. "Ariella is my great-grandmother and she was a witch, who, due to a bunch of bizarre circumstances, lost her magic, got turned into a vampire, and then married Valerian after living with a muggle man for a few years and having his kids, the eldest of which became my grandfather. I know it might seem really confusing, but I really can't explain anymore. It's a very complicated story."

"Sounds like it," Elina agreed. "But the two of you aren't distant cousins or anything like that, right?"

Ariella shook her head. "No. We did have children, but neither of them lived long enough to have families of their own."

"I'm sorry," Elina told her quietly.

"It's really all right," Ariella said reassuringly. "Because there's nothing like getting your parents into shape. Now do you remember the exercise we made you two do to admit your real feelings to one another?"

"No," Hermione and Draco said at the same time.

"Valerian, you take Draco, I'll take Hermione. Elina, come with me."

The two once again grudgingly followed their respective relations into separate bedrooms, Draco grumbling all the while about how the show his parents were at was going to be over soon, and there would be a lot of trouble if they found Hermione there.

"And by pointing this out," Valerian asked, sitting down on Draco's bed, "are you saying that you are concerned for Hermione's safety if your parents find her here?"

Draco should his head. "No, of course not! What I'm trying to express is concern about what my parents will do to me for letting a mudblood into the house! Anything can happen to her for all I care. At least I won't have to explain about Elina. The girl is smart. She put a spell on my parents so they have no idea who she actually is. They think she's the daughter of a family friend who was sent here for the holidays."

Valerian looked at him. "Elina is the daughter you and Hermione bring into this world. The smarts that you admire in her: where do you think they come from?"

Draco looked up. "Not from me, that's for sure. At least not from what I've seen."

Valerian nodded. "Exactly. Something that you admire in your daughter came from Hermione."

Valerian smiled and nodded. "That's progress. And knowing what you know about her family history, you can't really call her a mudblood, can you?"

Draco's jaw dropped. "First you make me admit that I respect her and even like her at times, and then you make me give up the name?"

Valerian nodded encouragingly. "Come on, you gave it up before. You can do it again."

Draco looked heavenward. "I said it before, and I'll say it again: I'll do it, but I won't like it."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ariella, Hermione and Elina were making some revelations of their own in another bedroom.

"It was so weird at the beginning of the year," Hermione admitted. "Elina showed up at school, and since she was in an environment that was so different from her own, she sort of clung to Draco and I because we were the only things about our own time that were familiar to her. Every time she had a problem, we would have to deal with it together. And then there was the fact that Dumbledore said we couldn't tell anyone about her, lest they get the idea in their heads to do something nefarious with the information. That was something else we had to work together on."

"And how did you feel when you were working together to help Elina get through hard times or to keep her from getting into trouble with other people?" Ariella asked.

"Well, we were working together, so that was nice and just the fact that we had a goal, you know, something in common. And even though every crisis that came up made us yell at one another, at least we were willing to work together and get it solved."

"What about now?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "I feel kind of nervous, actually. I have this fear that since Draco and I don't have to work together on a daily basis anymore, we've drifted apart. And that if something bad happens to Elina, we won't be able to come together quick enough to do her any good."

"You mean, like if I start to disappear, you won't be of any help to me." Elina said.

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, that's what I mean. You're a wonder, Elina Ophelia. You're practically the only thing on the planet that Draco and I have in common. You have enough of each of us in your personality that if we don't work together, it gets overwhelming, I guess. You make us have to spend time with each other, and listen to each other if we want to get anything accomplished. And that's something even Dumbledore couldn't do." She grinned.

Elina grinned back and fell back on the bed. "Just call me Elina Ophelia Malfoy, girl wonder."

Ariella laughed, then looked at Hermione. "Anything else you want to say, or do you think you're all out of confessions?"

Hermione thought a moment. "I think I'm good."

"Good enough to be civil to Draco?"

Hermione nodded. "I'm at civil, not at love. Keep that in mind. And what is it about you and Valerian that makes Draco and I confess our innermost thoughts and feelings to you?"

Ariella shrugged. "Maybe it's because we're related. Or maybe you two look at Valerian and I and realize we show you what's really going on with the two of you, even if you can't admit it to yourselves."

Before Hermione could reply, there was a knock at the door. It was Valerian with Draco. "Is Hermione ready for civil conversation yet?"

"Yes," Ariella replied as the other two stepped into the room. "Is Draco?" Valerian nodded.

"All right," Elina declared. "Let's go to the parlor and have a civilized conversation!"


	26. One Step Forward

Despite her optimism, Elina prepared herself for silence once she and the others gathered at the kitchen table for discussion. Her parents had both confessed things, she knew that, but would they be willing to put their pride aside and say to each other what really mattered?

Elina sat herself at the head of the table with Draco and Hermione on either side and Ariella and Valerian sitting next to them. "Now," Ariella began, "who would like to start? Hermione?" All eyes shifted to her, and waited expectantly.

Hermione looked around to see if there was any way out of being the first to speak, but when it became clear that no one else would say anything until she'd spoke her piece, she relented. "I talked about what effect having Elina around had on Draco and me," she admitted. "It was an experience to say the least, having something in common with him. And then there was the fact that Elina was so far from home and that she felt so far out of place that Draco and I had to work together to keep her happy or calm, or whatever emotion is appropriate for how we wanted her to be.

"Whenever an episode would come up, Draco and I would deal with it. We'd get together and we'd talk, or yell at one another until whatever it was that needed fixing got fixed. I wouldn't say it was nice, because the feelings we felt during these episodes weren't for each other, but for Elina. In fact, I probably couldn't find any word that could properly describe how being with Draco in these situations made me feel."

At that point, she'd reached the end of her confession. She looked around the room and took a deep breath as she saw both Ariella and Valerian look at her with approval. Then Draco took his turn.

"I admit that this time around, I didn't confess as much. I didn't admit that there was a part of me that enjoyed all the time I had to spend with Hermione because of Elina, or that now I am so in love with her that I am ready to happily give up calling her 'mudblood' for all the rest of time. However, I did admit that in watching Elina, I found some traits in her personality that I admired, one being the foresight she used when she put a spell on my parents to make them think she was the daughter of a family friend. She wouldn't have been able to get into the house just by being herself, because as Hermione and I have pointed out to her many times, we didn't introduce her to my parents because of Hermione's heritage, and the affect that knowledge would have on my parents.

"The plan itself is foolhardy and she had a lot of nerve to put a spell on people much more experienced then herself. And the spell itself is extremely complex. It probably took every smart that she inherited from Hermione to help her figure it out. So I will admit that even if I find brains annoying in Hermione, I'm grateful that she had them to pass on to our daughter."

At that, Hermione looked at him in surprise and Elina grinned. "Thanks, Draco. That means a lot." She then looked at her two parents fondly for a moment. It had taken them a lot to admit these things out loud, and she was grateful for it. Ariella and Valerian had another take though.

"That's a good start," Ariella put in, "but need I remind you that if you don't get beyond the surface stuff and be able to confess to one another your deeper feelings, your daughter is going to disappear in three days, and you're probably never going to see her again?"

Elina started. She'd almost forgotten about that.

The same reminder made Draco and Hermione look up at Elina guiltily. "Sorry we couldn't bring out more for you," Hermione told her.

Elina nodded. "It's all right for now. I appreciate the two of you not killing each other or yelling this time."

At that moment, the five of them heard a door open somewhere, along with sounds of indistinct conversation. "Sounds like my parents are back from their show," Draco said quietly. "What do you want me to do?"

"You and Elina go meet them," Ariella said. "Valerian and I will go back to the photograph and see you again tomorrow, all right?"

Elina nodded, then looked at Hermione. "What are you going to do?" she asked. "I could come home with you if you want."

Hermione shook her head. "No, you stay here. You're safe here with Narcissa and Lucius. They'll be confused if you're suddenly gone. I'm going to stay with Ron and Harry at the Burrow."

She turned to leave, and to everyone's surprise, Draco put his hand on her arm. "No, you can stay here if you want. Mother and Father never go in the room where Ariella and Valerian's photograph is. You can sleep there and not have to worry about them finding you."

Hermione managed a small smile, realizing that he was trying to be friendly. "Thank you, that would be nice."

Elina cleared her throat. "Before Hermione stays in there, it might benefit from some cleaning. The dust on the floor is about two inches thick."

Draco nodded. "I'll get one of the house elves on that, and you go greet my parents. They're probably wondering what's happened to us both."

Narcissa gave Elina a look of concern as she approached the place where they stood waiting.

"Are you all right, dear? Where's Draco?"

Elina took a deep breath. "Sorry I was late getting here," she replied. "I was in one of the back rooms you know, and I got a little lost on my way here. Also, Draco said for me to tell you that he'll be here in a bit. He had to change clothes for dinner."

Narcissa nodded, but still kept her eyes on Elina all through their late dinner. Elina, meanwhile, kept her eyes on her plate so she wouldn't end up sending Draco any sign that would give the plan away.

After the dishes were cleared, Narcissa and Lucius went straight to bed, but Draco and Elina lingered. "Do you suppose I should go check on Hermione and see how she's settling in?" she asked.

Draco shrugged. "If you want to," he told her, his gaze on the floor looking for something invisible so that he wouldn't have to meet her eyes.

"Listen," Elina got out before she left, "thanks for giving Hermione the room. I know that took a lot out of you, and I really am grateful for your cooperation."

Draco looked up. "You're welcome. But don't go thinking that I gave her the room out of love because I can't bear for the two of us to be apart. I did it for your sake, and the sake of this whole unusual operation."

Elina turned her back on him. "Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of thinking such a thing. I know better then to think one dash of civility would suddenly plunge you two into the depths of passion. It will take something more then that."

When Elina got to Hermione's room, she found her sound asleep. She grabbed a piece of parchment out of her room and an owl, writing a note to Ron and Harry about Hermione's whereabouts before sending it off.

She reached her own room just before midnight and found Ariella waiting expectantly in an empty frame on the wall next to her bed. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "what are you doing here?"

"You only have two more days, Elina. Before you fall asleep tonight, think of ways to get your parents together."

Elina looked at the portrait. "Wouldn't it be funny if what brought them together had something to do with Christmas, like enchanted egg nog or magic mistletoe or something?"

Ariella grinned. "Sounds amusing. I can't wait to see what you come up with."


	27. When Nobody's Around

Elina didn't fall asleep for quite awhile that night because she was thinking about how she was going to get her parents together. She wanted it to be something memorable as well as something effective. The spell she chose, she realized, had to be able to deal with the real reason why her parents weren't really getting along with one another the way they did in her own time. Then, it came to her: it was all about image. Hermione disliked Draco because she saw him as a manipulative Slytherin pureblood fanatic with no goals and a very small heart. And Draco wouldn't think of liking Hermione because she was a muggle-born Gryffindor know-it-all.

But the perceptions her parents had of one another at this point weren't really their own. They were thoughts that had occurred as a result of house rivalry at Hogwarts and outside familial influences, both of which wouldn't be easy to change.

She hopped out of bed and began to pace, thinking about what to do now that she realized what she was up against. The trick would be, she decided, to get Draco and Hermione, and maybe her grandparents too, just to be safe, to see what was outside their neat little boxes. To take off the green- and scarlet-tinted glasses her parents and grandparents hid behind and show them how to think beyond house or bloodline biases.

After she'd crossed to her bedroom door for the tenth time, she heard a knock. With a gasp, she ran back to her bed and quickly threw the covers over herself before she let the person who was knocking enter the room. Elina didn't know who she expected to see on the other side, but it definitely wasn't her parents standing side by side and asking to come in. Elina nodded her consent, and Hermione lit up the room with her wand as she and Draco grabbed cushions out of the closet and set them on the floor next to Elina's bed.

Once they both were seated, Elina cleared her throat. "What brings the two of you here at three in the morning?" she asked, faking a yawn.

Hermione grinned. "Draco heard you pacing and guessed that you probably were having trouble sleeping. We need to talk and now seems to be as good a time as any."

Elina gave up trying to feign tiredness. "What do we need to talk about? Are you going to tell me that you're sorry, but there's no way the two of you are going to fall in love in two days, so I should just kiss existence goodbye?"

Draco shook his head. "Aren't we feeling pessimistic?" he asked with a small grin.

Elina eyed him suspiciously. "What's the matter with you?" she asked. "A few hours ago, you were saying that I shouldn't take your giving Hermione a room as a sign that you like her, and now the two of you are in my room and grinning at me. What's going on?"

"What we want to talk about," Draco told her, "is that spell you put on my parents. We want you to remove it tomorrow, for real this time."

"What!" Elina cried, topping off her bed with a crash, the volume of her voice making both Draco and Hermione wince. "I can't take the spell off of them. If I do that, not only will I have to deal with the difficulties the two of you are making, but the ones from Grandmother Narcissa and Grandfather Lucius as well!"

"Be that as it may," Hermione broke in, halting her objections, "you will remove the spell tomorrow. You're a smart girl, Elina Ophelia. I don't doubt you'll think of more ethical ways to reach the solution you want that don't involve taking away anyone's will power."

Elina looked at both her parents and frowned. "Did you think this up together, or did some people influence some other people until they gave in?"

Draco and Hermione looked at one another for a moment before Draco finally said "it was a mutual decision. There isn't a chance in hell that I would go into Hermione's way of thinking if I didn't truly believe in it as much as she did."

Elina stared at her parents. It was nice that they were working together on something, but she found it disconcerting to have both of them against her. "All right," she said huffily. "I'll remove the spell tomorrow. Now if you don't have anything else to say, please leave. I need a decent amount of sleep if I have to think of a plan to get the two of you together in the presence of Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa in their right minds." And with that, she tucked herself in again and shifted under the covers so that Draco and Hermione were no longer in her sight.

Sensing that they were dismissed, Draco and Hermione left Elina's room and headed back to Draco's.

"Well that didn't go well at all," Hermione said in a tone of surprise. "You would think that she'd be pleased the two of us were cooperating about something, but instead she gets all huffy and tells us to go away."

"If it makes you feel any better, I think she was angrier at me then she was at you," Draco pointed out. "I think she was counting on having me back her up."

"And why didn't you?" Hermione asked curiously. "I mean, I know she put a complex mind-altering spell on your parents, but I thought you Slytherins were all into the ends justifying the means. I was really surprised when you actually told her that you were siding with me. It's one thing to say it away from her, but doing it in her presence took guts."

Draco shook his head and allowed himself a small grin. "When are you going to learn that there's more to me?" he asked.

Hermione sighed. "I'd like to see that there's more to you, but I'm afraid that as long as you're around your parents or your friends, you won't show it to me."

Draco was silent for a moment. Then he said, "Elina was up all night thinking up ways to get the two of us together I bet. Could you tell me if there's a spell that will make a person see people for who they really are?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked curiously.

"What I mean is, at the present time, I won't let myself like you because you're from Gryffindor, muggle-born and a know-it-all."

"Do you want my help or not?" Hermione asked icily.

"No, wait. Just hear me out before you talk, all right?"

Hermione nodded, but she still looked slightly put off.

"And you won't let yourself like me because you think I'm evil and self-absorbed," he continued. "The question is, why do we think these things about one another?"

"I think what I do because you really are an evil, self-absorbed-"

"Stop," Draco said in a tone that made Hermione shut up immediately. "Let's say that the two of us went to a school like Elina's, where no one was divided into houses that had thoughts about one another built in, and we just saw each other in classes and on the grounds. What would you think of me then?"

Hermione sighed. "I might let myself like you," she admitted. "You _are_ nice to talk to when we're alone like this, with no friends around to influence how we think…what about you?"

He considered a moment. "I think I'd say the same thing about you, although if we did actually manage to fall in love with one another, I wouldn't be able to bring you home to meet my parents. I think you've noticed that I'm worse when I'm around them?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, where are you going with this?"

"I'm asking if there's a spell that could put us in that frame of mind," he said. "Make it seem like we aren't a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, or anything else. Something that would just make it seem like we're two people who met and are able to focus more on the person, rather then the school house or the bloodline."

Hermione was looking at him with awe. "Are you really serious? Because there is such a spell, but I don't want to tell you about it unless you really mean what you're saying."

"Let me put it this way," Draco told her dryly. "Remember when we were in the other reality and you came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but the fluffy pink towel?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes."

"Well I had a dream about that last night, and let's say it wasn't exactly unpleasant. And the only way I'll be able to see that again is if we get along."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but smiled indulgently. "I figured that it was something asinine like that," she told him. "But at least it's something. Besides," she said with a wink, "you don't look half bad in a towel yourself. And about the spell, it's actually a potion, and you can put it in any drink, as it's odorless, colorless and tasteless. But that's probably what Elina thought of as well, so we should be all right. Good night, Draco."

And without another word, she left the room, leaving Draco to his very confused thoughts.


	28. The Taste of Success

Elina was abruptly jolted out of dream-filled sleep the following morning by the sound of Ariella's voice.

"Good morning sunshine! You have to get up now, because as you know, after today, there's only one day left!"

Elina groaned and got up on her knees, glaring sleepily at the portrait. "Why so early? Potions never take me very long." When the portrait of Ariella gave her no response but a self-righteous expression, she groaned, rolled her eyes, and then grudgingly rolled out of bed.

As she was brushing her hair, Ariella started speaking again. "I am aware that you are adept at making potions, but the one you want has a lot of variants, and it might take awhile to find the one that would fit your parents' situation best. That is why I'm making you wake up so early."

Elina turned around. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say," she replied dismissively and went into the bathroom so she could brush her teeth. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and she was surprised to see Hermione on the other side.

"Good morning," she said resentfully. "What do you want? Come to yell at me some more?"

"No," Hermione replied firmly, ignoring Elina's tone. "I just came upstairs to tell you that the house-elves have early breakfast prepared if you want any, otherwise you can come down with Draco and your grandparents in a few hours."

"I think I'll wait and come down with Draco. I'm not hungry quite yet, and if I eat at the same time as Grandmother Narcissa and Grandfather Lucius, it will be more convenient as far as taking the spell off them is concerned."

Hermione nodded, and as Elina looked back at the mirror, she said quietly, "You're doing the right thing you know, really."

Then she disappeared before Elina could offer up a reply.

With about three hours until regular breakfast would be served, Elina headed to the library and poured over the potion she was to make, as well as the many variants. Ariella hadn't been kidding when she'd mentioned that there were quite a few.

"Look at this one!" she called enthusiastically to Ariella, who was now watching her from a frame in the library. "You mix it into baked goods, not drinks!"

Ariella nodded thoughtfully. There are some versions like that."

As she looked at the book enthusiastically, something suddenly occurred to her that popped her jubilant mood like a balloon. "Ariella, how am I supposed to get this into the food or drink? The house-elves won't like it if I try to stick unknown liquids in the meals!"

Ariella grinned. "There's no need to worry about that," she told her reassuringly. "After breakfast today, your grandparents are going out. Your grandfather has a business affair, and they won't be back until tonight."

Elina breathed a sigh of relief. "I could probably sneak the potion in before we eat," she said, realizing how lucky she was that her grandparents were going to be gone. It would make things so much simpler.

"That could work," Ariella agreed. "Have you looked at all the variants?" Elina nodded. "Good," the former replied. "You take the spell off your grandparents at breakfast, then we'll have the whole rest of the day to work on Hermione and Draco."

As Elina joined Draco in the kitchen for breakfast, she felt her muscles tighten as she gripped her wand. She didn't sit down as Draco did, but instead peered around the edge of the entryway, praying that neither Narcissa nor Lucius would see her. As they entered from another side, their backs were both to her and she quietly flicked the wand, performing what she hoped would be a successful silent counterspell. She then closed her eyes for a moment and waited.

When she opened them again, Narcissa and Lucius were sitting side by side at the table, and both were blinking rapidly. When Narcissa caught Elina's eye, she turned curiously to Draco. "Who is this?" she asked, nodding at Elina.

"Oh, her?" he asked, doing a very good imitation of being nonchalant, "she's new at school, in Slytherin with me. We've become good friends and she told me that her parents would be gone for Christmas, so I invited her here to stay."

"Oh," Narcissa's tone was light when she looked to Elina again and pulled out a chair. "Have you had any breakfast, dear?"

Elina shook her head, then got up the courage to walk the rest of the way into the dining room, where she perched with slight hesitation onto the chair nearest Draco. She looked at each of the others in turn, and when it became clear that no one suspected anything, she sighed with relief and asked Draco if he would mind passing her the toast and marmalade. He quickly obliged, and soon after, Narcissa resumed the conversation.

"So," she began in the same light tone, "Draco's told us that you go to Hogwarts and are with him in Slytherin house. What's your name? We might know your parents. Lucius _does _have several contacts at the ministry after all."

Elina looked at Draco in a panic. She had no idea what to say. Draco mouthed "don't mention Evie," and instead pointed out the window, a gesture Elina took to mean that she should say she was from somewhere far away, so that there was no chance of Narcissa and Lucius knowing her parents.

"My parents are back at home," she responded carefully. "I'm an exchange student at Hogwarts, and my parents are at our house in America. My name is Elizabeth."

Narcissa looked thoughtful. "I'm sorry you have to be so far away from home over Christmas."

Elina sighed. "It's really no big deal. My parents and I don't get along anyway. They wanted me to go to an American magic school, but I'd heard so many good things about Hogwarts that I decided to go there instead. My parents weren't too happy with my decision."

Narcissa nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry. But you're always welcome here, don't forget that."

"Thank you," Elina told her with an enthusiastic smile. Breakfast went on for another half an hour, and by the time the clock struck ten, Draco was looking at his watch impatiently.

"Mother," he finally asked Narcissa, "isn't it about time for you and Father to go to that business meeting he has?"

Narcissa shook her head. "No, Draco. We just got an owl saying that Fudge is running a bit late. We don't need to leave for at least another hour."

When Elina and Draco heard that, they both began to fidget nervously, and ten minutes later, all went down hill when Hermione appeared in the dining room with an eager "are they gone yet?" her eyes then met Narcissa's very wide ones.

"What is _she_ doing here?" Narcissa asked, her voice shaking with rage. But before anyone could answer that query, Hermione advanced into the room with her head held high.

"Dumbledore wants Draco and me to work on another mission together," she said calmly. "I know you want me to leave, but as such an assignment implies, I must stay here until it's been completed."

At that moment, Ariella appeared in the portrait frame over Narcissa's head. "Narcissa," she said sharply, "I believe you and Lucius should leave for the business meeting now. If you wait too long, you'll deprive Lucius's business contacts of the usual pre-meeting chatter."

Narcissa turned. "What are you doing here? Did you have anything to do with this?" she asked, indicating Hermione and Draco together.

Ariella shook her head. "No, this is the result of the maturation of your son's character, Narcissa."

The latter could think of nothing to say in reply, but stalked out of the kitchen with a mutinous-looking Lucius following soon after. After the two had left, the others sat at the table in silence before Elina finally said "I took the spell off them."

Hermione nodded approvingly. "Good for you. Now, how do you plan to spend the rest of your day?"

"Well," Elina replied, trying to look as innocent as possible, "I found some interesting potions when I was looking through books in the library. I was thinking of trying them out. And also, would you mind horribly if I made dinner and drinks tonight?"

Hermione and Draco looked at one another for a moment, then turned back to Elina. "Of course you can make dinner tonight," he told her.

"I can't wait to taste what you fix," Hermione added. "Good luck."

And without another word, they both left the dining room.

* * *

It took Elina until the sun went down that day to get the potion ready, but that was only because she'd made the meal and drinks first. With Ariella and Valerian's help, she smuggled them into the dining room which was blessedly empty of Hermione and Draco. With as much stealth as she could manage, she put a few drops of each potion in the drinks, then quickly put the rest in a nondescript glass bottle on top of a nearby table.

Hermione and Draco came immediately when she called them and marveled at the job she'd done with the meal preparation. "The house-elves wouldn't let me do anything unless I let them help," she admitted. "I tried telling them that I was fine cooking by myself, but they kept insisting and I finally just let them help."

"What kind of drink is this?" Draco asked, looking into his glass at the fizzy brown liquid. "You aren't making us drink potion are you?"

"No," Elina said quickly. "It's a muggle drink called pop. It's really good, I promise."

Draco still seemed doubtful and watched Hermione as she took a healthy swig from her glass. When he was sure that she wasn't going to die, he took a drink from his glass as well. There had been a lot of potions to choose from, but this particular once had been chosen because it reacted well when mixed with carbonation.

Not a minute later, the expressions on Draco and Hermione's faces changed. Elina saw Draco's change first and she immediately went over to him. "Are you all right, Draco? What are you seeing?"

He made no indication that he'd seen her physically, because his eyes were locked on Hermione, but his next words indicated that he'd heard what she'd said. "I'm looking at the most beautiful girl in the world," he replied. Elina let out a shriek of triumph and then looked at Hermione, who was gazing at Draco. Her achievement seemed to be sealed when Hermione said "has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful eyes?"

At that moment, Draco seemed to realize that Elina was standing next to him, and he said to her "Would you mind leaving us alone?"

"Of course," Elina replied, grinning widely over her shoulder as she left the dining room. "Have a nice night, you two."

A/n- This is the last update I will do before I get back from vacation on July 8th. Thanks for reading everyone!

-Belle


	29. Accomplishments in Seven Hours

Elina woke up on her final day feeling very tense. Despite the success she'd had with her parents the day before, the reaction from her grandparents still made her very nervous about the days ahead. She didn't get out of bed once her eyes were open, but instead rolled onto her back and counted the little white specks on the ceiling, while she waited to see if her eyes would close again. She stayed very awake, however, and was on dot 1,556 when the door opened and Hermione came in, followed closely by Draco.

As she saw them approach the bed out of the corner of her eye, Elina sat up and tried to smile at them. "Good morning," she greeted them quietly, because the words were hard to get out. And it was a silly thing to be worrying about, because she knew that she would see them when she went back home. But something told her that she would never look at her parents the same way again.

"Good morning," Hermione told her, greeting her warmly. "It's the last day today, isn't it?"

Elina nodded, sniffling slightly. "I know that this sounds really silly, but I almost don't want to go back. I've really learned a lot from being here, and the two of you have been wonderful, putting up with me even in my awkward and irritating moments."

Hermione and Draco looked slightly taken aback at their daughter's show of sentimentality, but they sat on either side of her and put their arms around her.

"It's all right," Hermione told her. "That's what parents are supposed to do." Draco nodded in agreement, but was reticent.

Feeling a bit better, Elina found the energy to get out of bed and get dressed. "So," she asked, looking curiously at Draco and Hermione as soon as she finished, "what happened last night? Do the two of you need anymore potion?"

Draco and Hermione looked at one another. "We spent the night together actually," she said and Elina cheered mentally. "After you left, we went for a walk in the park, and then we stopped by a little café and had coffee, where we talked for hours. I found out so many things I never knew before."

"Like what?" Elina asked curiously. "Or do I even want to know?" she added quickly as an afterthought.

"No, there wasn't anything that would be considered bad or dirty. We could tell you everything we talked about, but you'd probably get bored after awhile. But for starters, do you realize that he's actually read _Hogwarts: A History_?"

Elina looked at him, surprised. "When did you do that? And why? Was it for free reading?"

Draco looked slightly embarrassed. "It was late at night and I was having trouble sleeping, so I read it because it looked educational, and after finishing that book, I got the best night's sleep in my memory."

Hermione looked crestfallen. "You read it to cure your insomnia? You didn't find any part of it fascinating whatsoever?"

Draco exhaled sharply. "I didn't say that I got no enjoyment from it," he said quickly. "I just meant that I'm not used to reading books that long or crammed with that much interesting information, so after the first time, I was a bit worn out. I liked the part where they went into detail about the secret passageways and stuff, and I admit that I found the information about the founders very interesting."

"It explains a lot, doesn't it?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded. "It sure does."

Afterward, the three of them went down to breakfast, where they met a very sour-looking Narcissa and Lucius.

"So you're still here, are you?" Narcissa asked nastily as soon as Hermione sat down.

Draco took a seat next to her, and before Hermione could take the bait, he squeezed her hand and gave her a look that he intended for Narcissa to see. "Yes, she is still here, Mother. We have a job to do, and I assume that you would never want me to abandon my commitments."

Narcissa gave no reply to this but instead sat in stony-faced silence, until she noticed Elina and started chatting breezily about the weather, not looking her son or Hermione in the eye again.

As soon as the breakfast dishes were cleared, Lucius motioned for Draco to follow him into another room so they could have a little talk. Hermione and Elina looked at one another and stealthily followed to the door, which was open just a crack, but they could have stood farther away and still heard what was being discussed without any worry of being caught. Lucius was angry and in no mood to be quiet about it.

"…Don't know how you could do this to us, Draco! When we needed her, your mother and I understood, were even willing to bring her into the house. But now there is no reason for her to even be near here! Association with the likes of her, there is absolutely no excuse for that! And especially when we have a perfectly nice, much more attractive pureblood girl in the house who is a much better romantic prospect."

Elina and Hermione looked at one another for a moment in surprise, then waited for Draco's response.

"Father, I didn't bring Granger here because I'm in love with her! I brought her here because-"

At that moment, he choked up, as the sound of a slap echoed in the hallway and Elina and Hermione looked at one another in panic. A moment later though, they let out gasps of relief as a third voice issued from the room.

"Lucius, you will ask no more questions!" Valerian ordered sharply. "Hermione's presence is necessary, whether it is to your own personal taste or not."

A second later, the door opened, and Lucius, looking livid, left the room. If he noticed Elina and Hermione flattened against the wall, he gave no sign. As soon as he had cleared the hallway, Elina and Hermione headed into the bedroom to see if Draco was all right.

Draco was standing in front of the bed and clutching one of the bedposts. His eyes were wide, his hair was mussed, and his right cheek was still red from where his father had slapped him.

"Are you going to be all right?" Elina asked as she sat down beside him and took his hand.

Draco looked at her and nodded. "I don't scare you, do I?" he asked as he watched her. "Back in your own time, I mean."

"What are you trying to say?" Elina asked.

"I mean, do you feel like you can talk to me about anything?" he elaborated. "Do we communicate, or do we stay away from each other most of the time?"

Elina looked him in the eye. "You're a good father to me Draco," she told him firmly. "There has never been a moment in my life where I've felt that I needed to keep things from you because I was afraid of what you would say."

Draco nodded, his eyes on her face, and Elina was surprised to see one tear making a track down his cheek. He wiped it away and stood up.

"Well, we don't have all day," he said, trying to regain his former manner. "If we want to get anything done before you go away tonight, we should probably get to work."

As she followed Hermione and Draco out, she looked up at Valerian's portrait. "How long do I have?" she asked.

"What time is it now?" he asked her. Elina looked at a clock in the hallway.

"Ten-thirty in the morning," she told him.

"The sun sets at five-thirty. You have seven hours. Then you will be gone from here whether you have accomplished your mission or not."

Elina took a deep breath and headed out of the room to tell Hermione and Draco the news.

"What do you mean we only have seven hours?!" Draco cried out. "And what exactly did he mean when he said 'whether you have accomplished your mission or not'?"

"I think that refers to whether or not you and I have fallen in love with one another satisfactorily," Hermione put in."

Elina nodded. "That sounds about right."

"But we are in love with one another right now," Draco thought out loud. "Everything should be okay!"

"Not quite," Elina told him. "The potion I put in your pop last night allowed you to see the good in one another. It cleared the way for you to fall in love. It didn't create love between you. No spell can do that."

Draco gave a groan of frustration. "So we have to fall in love in seven hours. And with my parents being the way they are. This won't be easy."

"But we can do it Draco," Hermione assured him. Then, she looked at Elina. "For Elina's sake, for her very existence, we have to do it."

* * *

While her parents spent the day out and about, Elina worked on the problem of her grandparents. It was quite a problem. The solution that made her feel most secure was whipping up some sort of potion that would make them accept Hermione, but there wasn't time for that. Finally, she just decided to spring a silencing charm on the two of them and see what happened after that. Then she went to talk with Ariella, who was in the original photograph in Elina's bedroom.

"What exactly would be a satisfactory end to this mission?" She asked. "I mean, I know my parents have to be in love and all, but is there anything more to it?"

Ariella thought a moment. "Your parents have to be completely in love, so that they can be with each other under any circumstance. They are practically there."

"I know," Elina said miserably. "All that's standing in the way are Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa."

Ariella smiled. "Indeed. Once your parents are able to say 'I love you' in front of Lucius and Narcissa, your mission will be considered successful."

Elina looked up at her. "I have a plan. It'll have to be put into action around teatime, which cutting it a bit close, but that's the only time we'll all be able to be in the same room."

Ariella nodded. "Good luck, Elina."

Elina smiled. "Thank you," she told her. "And thanks for all your help."

Elina caught up with Hermione and Draco just before teatime to impart upon them what she'd learned: "Ariella told me that once the two of you are able to say 'I love you and mean it in front of Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa, my mission will be complete. Are you ready to do that?"

"Well yes," Draco replied. "But what are we going to do about my parents?"

"Don't worry. I've got that all under control. All the two of you have to do is show up for tea." Elina reassured them.

The atmosphere in the dining room was tense. Narcissa kept cutting Hermione off every time she tried to speak and poured an entire shaker full of salt into her teacup when she asked for sugar. Meanwhile, Draco said nothing, listening to his father extol Elina's virtues and how she would be wonderful marriage material. His eyes however, kept going between Elina and the clock as it came closer and closer to the time for sunset.

At five-twenty-five, Elina pulled the wand out of her pocket and pointed it at her grandparents. But at the same moment, a house elf came in carrying dishes full of tea cakes. Her vision obscured by the stacks of cakes, she tripped over the hem of her tea cozy and the cakes and plates went flying everywhere. A couple of the plates flew at Narcissa and Lucius, and Elina's spell ricocheted off them and hit the wall, causing a small explosion.

In the commotion, time seemed to stop, but after things had calmed down, Draco looked at the clock again, and saw, to his horror that it was five-twenty-nine. Sunset was in one minute. As he reached for Hermione's hand, he heard a small gasp and watched as Elina began to fade away, first slowly, then faster with every second. Pretty soon, she'd faded altogether, tears in her eyes and mouthing goodbye until the very end.

As they looked at her empty chair, Hermione and Draco felt like crying themselves. They'd failed her and there was nothing more to do.

After a few moments of silence, Ariella appeared in her portrait. Draco and Hermoine looked at her and she regarded their defeated expressions with surprising sympathy.

"You haven't failed, not yet," she told them gently. "Tell the truth now, every detail about Elina and who she really is. Then do what she wanted you to do."

Draco and Hermione nodded and stood up, holding hands in full view of Narcissa's cold gaze. "Mother, Father, that girl who was here wasn't named Elizabeth. Her name was Elina Ophelia Malfoy and she was our daughter. Hermione's and mine. She came here from the future to help the two of us see the good in each other, and it took awhile, but it worked. I love her."

Hermione allowed herself a smile at the look of outrage on Narcissa's face. Then she turned to Draco. "And I love your son too. Perhaps more then I should."

The silence that followed this statement was as complete as if Elina's spell had been successful. Hermione and Draco sat down, finished their tea and left the dining room feeling less guilty then before.

* * *

Later that night, Hermione and Draco were having a discussion in his bedroom about what they were going to do now that they were officially a couple as they packed to spend Christmas with Hermione's parents because Narcissa and Lucius were no longer in the most festive of moods.

"Well, I wouldn't say we're quite a couple yet," Draco reasoned. "After all, we still have to tell Weasley and Potter. How do you think they're going to take it?"

Hermione thought a moment. "If they take it better then your parents," she told him with a small smile, "I will definitely be surprised."

A/n- should I do an epilogue with Hermione and Draco back at Hogwarts?


	30. Epilogue

Hermione sat up in bed and looked at the picture on the bedside table. It showed her, Ron and Harry outside Honeydukes, holding up large bags of candy and grinning widely at the camera. She sighed. The picture had been taken just hours after their last day at Hogwarts, and she hadn't heard from or seen either of them since then.

They'd taken her news about Draco much better then she'd expected, but there was still some resentment. But to his credit, Draco had made an effort for the rest of the year, doing his best not to insult Ron and Harry to their faces, and if he did it at all, Hermione had never actually heard it.

She got out of bed slowly and shuffled to the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She felt like eggs and sausage, but that the sausage should have peanut butter on it. Thank God she'd bought some the last time she'd visited her parents. As she ate, she pondered things. This wasn't the first time she'd felt like having something unusual with her breakfast. It had been going on for the last two weeks or so. As she gulped down the last sausage, Draco entered the room and eyed her plate and the jars around it.

"You put peanut butter on your sausage this morning? Are you feeling all right?"

Hermione nodded and smiled. "I'm feeling fine, just really hungry that's all. Would you pass me the toast and marmalade?"

Draco's eyebrows were up in his hair, but he did as she asked. "By the way," he told her as he sat down, "a tiny gray owl crashed into the window this morning. He was carrying a letter for you."

Hermione started to choke on the piece of toast she was chewing on and Draco pounded her on the back. When she could talk again, she said "do you have the letter?"

He nodded. "It's on the bed. I'll go and get it for you."

As soon as he was gone, Hermione's eyes happened upon a calendar that was hanging on the wall across from the breakfast table. It was turned to July, and with a start, she realized that today was July 31, Harry's birthday. Did this have anything to do with why Ron's owl was suddenly at her house with a letter?

At that moment, Draco returned, handing her the neatly folded square of parchment. She opened it eagerly, anxious to see what it said.

_Hermione,_

_Sorry we haven't written in such a long time, but we just had to get used to the idea of you and Malfoy being together. It was a big thing to process, but we think we have it under control. Also, we took a holiday to Spain and had quite a time. That's why we haven't answered your letters or written you any. It wasn't because we don't like you. Would you mind meeting us for a birthday celebration at the Three Broomsticks around two? Then you can tell us everything that's been going on with you._

_Can't wait to see you!_

_Lots of love,_

_Ron and Harry_

Hermione smiled and folded the letter up again, setting it down on the table next to her breakfast plate.

"Good news?" Draco asked after a moment.

Hermione nodded. "Ron and Harry want me to meet them at the Three Broomsticks to celebrate Harry's birthday. They went on holiday to Spain after school ended, so that's why they haven't been writing."

Draco took a drink of tea. "When do you need to be there?"

Hermione shrugged. "The note says two, so I think I'll leave about one-forty-five."

He nodded and went back to eating his toast.

* * *

After breakfast, Hermione went outside to walk around a little bit. The house she and Draco were living in was a size between her parents' house and the Manor. It was painted a shade of light blue, with dormer windows and a steep, sloping roof. Hermione had a rose garden that ran along the side and she tended to it daily.

She then went to walk around Diagon Alley to see if she couldn't find a little something to give to Harry as a present. She didn't think he'd want something too large, so she settled on an extra-large box of the new and improved Bertie Bott's Every Flavor beans. Then she looked around Flourish and Blott's until, to her surprise, it was a quarter to two. She paid for her purchases, apparated home to put them in the library, then got into a booth in the Three Broomsticks right on time.

When Ron and Harry showed up a moment later, they got into a group hug then sat back down and studied one another. Ron was very freckled, and Harry very tan.

"So, did you have fun in Spain?" she asked.

Ron nodded. "A lot of fun. Sorry we didn't tell you about it. Were you afraid that we didn't like you anymore?"

"A little," Hermione admitted. "I woke up this morning and the first thing I saw was the picture Neville took of us on the last day of school, when we were all standing in front of Honeydukes, and I did feel a bit sad that I hadn't heard from you since then.

Harry smiled. "Well, we're really sorry and we promise that from now on, we will write more often. Now what about you? How's life as Mrs. Malfoy treating you?"

Hermione smiled. "It's really not so bad. Draco's parents still haven't thawed since Christmas, so he and my parents have been getting really close, especially he and my mother."

"Really?" Ron asked in surprise.

Hermione nodded. "They cook together. And then he and my father watch sports. Draco's working on understanding soccer. He wants to be able to cheer for a team during the World Cup."

Ron's eyebrow rose, but Harry nodded. "Sounds nice. What does everyone say to three butterbeers?"

Ron and Hermione nodded and the three of them toasted and drank to Harry's birthday.

* * *

When Hermione came into the living room with a book later that night, she found Draco gazing at her with the same concerned expression that he'd given her earlier that morning. "Are you sure you're all right?" he asked.

Hermione took a deep breath. There was something she'd been wanting to tell him, and she thought that now was the time. She knew that he suspected something was going on with her.

"Draco, she said, putting her book down, "I'm late."

His eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

She nodded. "By about a week."

He took a deep breath of his own and said, "Well, maybe you should check to be sure."

She nodded, and went to whip up the potion. Thankfully it didn't take long to make. She shut the bathroom door and waited for it to stop bubbling while Draco stayed outside. After awhile, she had the results. She opened the door to Draco's anxious face.

"Well?" he asked nervously.

She smiled. "Draco, I'm pregnant."


End file.
